


Inside Onward

by bluesyone



Category: Inside Out (2015), Onward (2020)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 57,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluesyone/pseuds/bluesyone
Summary: When you were watching Onward, did you ever wonder what was going on inside Ian's head?  Well, here's the story of that epic quest, from the point of view of the little voices inside his head.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	1. Typical Morning

**Author's Note:**

> This crossover was inspired by three things: I love the film Inside Out, I love the character Fear, and I love the character Ian from Onward in part because the whole time I watched the movie I couldn't help but see him as Fear as an elf. So, I thought that in Ian's head, Ian's lead emotion would be a Fear. But then I realized, if Ian started so fearful in the beginning of the film, but became more confident in the end of the film, what happened to his Fear during the story? From there, Inside Onward was born.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian's emotions help him survive another morning in his chaotic house. Not a good start for Ian's sixteenth birthday.

The familiar chime of the smartphone alarm rang through headquarters. Followed by another familiar wake up call of a chipper voice exclaiming, “It’s morning! It’s morning! Wake up, sleepyheads! It’s the big day!”

Fear was stirring out of his slumber in his bed, rolling onto his back as he rubbed the sleep from one of his eyes. “Oh, do we have to?” he thought to himself in a grumble. His eyes shot wide open as he sat straight up in bed. His mind just woke him up with the instant realization that this is the day, a big important day! Quickly, Fear jumped out of bed and changed into his clothes, buttoning up his red flannel shirt, slipping into his short denim jeans, and tying his blue sneakers on nice and tight. He struggled a bit getting his Willowdale College sweater on, having to tug to get his pointy purple elf ears and long thin nose through the collar, but thankfully succeeded and smoothed the wrinkles out with his hands. He gave his curly blue hair a good brushing before checking his reflection in the mirror. The blue pompadour was resting perfectly, even with his purple nerve popping out at the part on the back of his head.

“Come on guys!” Joy voice echoed through headquarters. “Today’s the day!”

Fear took a double take as he saw the three emotions, Sadness, Disgust and Anger, about ready to leave their shared bedroom. Never wanting to be the last to leave, or the second, Fear quickly placed the digital watch on his wrist and grabbed the notepad and multi-colored pen off his nightstand. He raced for the exit, barely pushing past Sadness, before slowing his pace to a steady yet leading walk down the ramp to the headquarters floor.

“Okay everyone, today is the day,” he began announcing, as he already began scribbling fresh new notes down on paper. “Do we have everyone present? Anger? Disgust? Sadness?”

“Here,” Sadness called out in his quiet, melancholy voice.

“You don’t have to do roll call every day, Fear,” Disgust had to comment in his own snippy way. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“Not like we have a reason to leave, anyway,” Anger added in his grouchy tone as he began crossing the floor towards the console.

“Okay, and Joy? Where’s Joy?” Fear looked up from his notepad and began looking around. “Has anyone seen Joy?”

“Right here!” Joy raced from the console and made a beeline towards Fear, leaving a trail of glittering particles of yellow energy in his wake. He stood straight in front of Fear, grinning ear to ear. Fear couldn’t help but notice Joy, as his perkiness made him jump a bit. He collected himself and continued, “So, how was dream duty?”

“Another perfect dream,” Joy reported, following Fear as they walked towards the console. “It was a classic, wonderfully calm dream of stargazing.”

“Relaxing, I like that,” he commented, writing Joy’s report into his notebook. He stopped right in front of the console and asked, “So, where are we now?”

“Ian’s just finished in the bedroom,” Disgust replied, pointing up at the screen in front of them.

Fear looked up from his notes, he paused a moment as he looked at the image onscreen into the outside world. Onscreen was a reflection in the mirror, and in that reflection was an image of Ian, a sixteen year old elf boy, just finishing putting on his dad’s old Willowdale College sweatshirt as he gave himself a little grin into the mirror. Fear smiled, along with the other emotions, as the vision onscreen turned from the mirror to the corkboard in Ian’s bedroom, where on the calendar listed today as Ian’s sixteenth birthday.

As Ian exited his bedroom and began to head downstairs, Fear turned his attention to the other emotions. “Okay gang, let’s make this sixteenth birthday the best sixteenth birthday Ian’s ever had.”

“Ian only gets one sixteenth birthday, Fear,” Disgust corrected.

Fear gulped as he felt the anxieties run through his body like frantic butterflies. “Don’t remind me…”

“Morning, mom,” Ian called out.

The emotions looked up in unison at the screen. “Oh hey, it’s mom,” Joy pointed out, as Fear could feel a warm glow from behind them. He turned to look out the window, into Ian’s mind world, and a small collection of Islands of Personality standing along the horizon. Fear smiled as he saw Family Island burst to life, showing the yellow core memory of Ian’s family is working.

“Oh, and here comes Blazey!” Joy cheered.

“What?” Fear turned back just in time to see the pet dragon leap into the screen. It was a blur of chaos as Ian fell to the ground, happily laughing as Blazey pinned him down and licked his face. “Evasive maneuver!” Fear called out as he leaped for the controls, only to find Joy was already at the console. Fear stepped back, a nervous smile on his face. “Oh. Uh, nice reaction time, Joy,” he mumbled his comment.

“Why thank you,” Joy chimed back.

Ian climbed back up to his feet as his mom, Laurel, greeted him with a “Happy birthday, my little man,” and covering his cheek with kisses.

“Ew, she’s doing it again!” Disgust gagged before pushing Fear out of the way and taking control.

“Ew, mom,” Ian cried out before breaking free and wiping off his cheek.

Fear pushed himself back by the console. “Disgust, I know we don’t like mom’s kisses, but I need to be…” The emotions looked up silently at the screen as Laurel was looking back at Ian. Fear finally broke the silence with a whisper. “Should we be worried?” he asked, pressing a button on the console.

“What?” Ian asked.

“You’re wearing your dad’s college sweatshirt,” Laurel replied.

Disgust commented as the other emotions breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh, right. The sweatshirt,” she commented as she flicked some  
switches on the console.

Ian looked down at the Willowdale College sweatshirt he was wearing over his red flannel shirt. “Oh, well, it finally fits,” Ian said as he  
shrugged it off.

Laurel lit up with such joy as she approached Ian. “Oh, my little chubby cheeks,” she said with such motherly love.

Disgust stepped back. “Ew, she’s coming back.”

“Stop her!” Anger snapped as Fear dove onto the controls.

Ian stepped back before Laurel could hug her. “No, mom. I gotta eat breakfast before school,” he said, adding a chuckle.

Fear looked confused, until he glanced over at Joy on the other side of the console turning a dial or two. “Joy,” Fear spoke up, getting her attention.

“What? It’s mom,” Joy explained with a smirk as she held up her hands.

“There’s nothing to eat?” Sadness asked, overhearing Laurel. “That’s sad.”

“That’s not fair,” Anger grumbled. “How are we supposed to survive school without food?”

“We’re gonna starve,” Sadness sighed.

“Not on my watch,” Fear said as he took over. Ian opened the fridge door and was met with a pan of delicious finger foods for the party.

“Yum, boars in a blanket.” Joy instinctively pressed a few buttons.

Fear panicked. “Joy, what are you doing?”

Laurel playfully smacked Ian’s hand away. “Don’t touch those, mister. Those are for your party tonight.

“Now look what you did,” Fear reprimanded Joy. “You got Ian in trouble!”

“Sorry, they looked so good,” Joy sheepishly excused his actions.

Ian instead grabbed a carton of milk and began to pour himself some cereal.

“How bout inviting those students from the science club to your party?” Laurel suggested to Ian. “You said yourself they were pretty rockin.”

“I didn’t say it like that,” Ian replied, as his Disgust rolled his eyes. “And besides, I haven’t asked them.”

“Well, it’s your birthday, it’s the day to try new things,” Laurel encouraged Ian while prepping a protein shake in the mixer. Just as she turned it in, Laurel asked aloud, “Speaking of new things, have you signed up for your driving lesson today?”

“No!” Ian shouted, before nervously lowering his voice. “No, I haven’t.”

Sadness glanced over at Fear, who was shaking like a frigid leaf, his eyes wide as he thought about the very idea of Ian driving.

“There’s no reason to be scared,” Laurel told Ian.

“I’m not scared,” Ian replied. Joy pressed a few buttons, and Ian changed the subject. “I’m gonna move Barley’s game.”  
Joy glanced over at Fear, the frightened purple emotion was stepping back from the console and placing his hands under his arms. 

“Relax,” Joy told him gently. “Ian’s sixteen now. He needs to drive. He’ll be okay.”

“Okay? Okay? I know he’ll be okay,” Fear stammered. “I just want him to be safe, I mean, okay.”

“Don’t worry, it’s Ian’s big day,” Joy assured Fear. “What could happen?”

“HALT!!”

“NO!!” The emotions were shocked as Ian was suddenly scooped into a big bear hugging arm lock by his older brother Barley.

“Get him out of there! Get him out of there!” Fear ordered as he jumped onto the console, the other emotions scrambling for controls.

“This again?” Anger snapped.

Disgust gagged. “He reeks! Doesn’t he ever shower?”

Ian struggled to escape, but instead kicked over his cereal and watched helplessly as it fell to the floor. “Oh no,” Sadness thought softly as Ian slumped in defeat.

Fear started flailing his hands, darting his head back and forth to all his emotions. “What do we do? What do we do? Why is Barley so strong??”

“Move over!” Anger barked as he punched Fear out of the way, sending him flying away from the console. The angry red emotion was literally steaming from atop his head as he cracked his knuckles.

“You know, Ian,” Barley commented boldly, “men of your age would prove their manhood by taking the rite of passage through the swamps of despair.”

“Oh, I’ll show you despair!” Anger roared as he took control of the console.

“I’m not testing anything,” Ian snapped back, sounding more like a gurgle through Barley’s headlock. “Now let me go!”

“Let him go, Barley,” Laurel called out from the kitchen, more of a comment than a command.

“Okay,” Barley said with a shrug, letting Ian go, as well as letting Ian drop onto the floor in a thud. “I know you’re stronger than that. There’s a warrior inside you, you just have to let him out.”

Fear finally climbed onto his feet, he looked up to see Ian struggling to climb onto his knees as well. The purple emotion’s eyes grew wide, he stepped back slowly, then broke out into a quick, frantic nervous pace across the headquarters floor. “Oh no… no no no no no, this isn’t right, this isn’t right…”

Joy caught the sound of worrying, leaving the console to the other three emotions, as they’re just now helping Ian quietly pick up his spilt cereal as Barley and Laurel broke out into another wrestling match. “Hey, hey,” Joy calmly told Fear in his cheerful tone. “It’s alright. It’s just cereal.”

“It’s not the cereal!” Fear stopped pacing and placed his hands under his arms again. “Okay, it is, but it’s everything! Ian gets only one sixteenth birthday, and it’s chaos before it even started!”

“Relax,” Joy assured him. “It’s just another normal day.”

“But it’s not a normal day,” Fear replied frantically. “It’s a birthday!”

“You’re getting stressed out, and Ian hasn’t eaten yet.” Joy took Fear’s hand and they both sat down on a couch beside them.

“It’s my job to get stressed out,” Fear said, frustrated as well as anxious. “I’m a Fear.”

Joy paused a moment, a thought rolling through her head, causing her smile to grow more melancholy. “Look, I shouldn’t make things worse, but, the guys…” Joy motioned to Sadness, Disgust and Anger at the console. “They’re talking about you again.”

This again. Realizing where this is going, Fear quieted down and sank into his seat, wrapping his hands around his sides.

“Don’t get me wrong, you’re doing great. You’re a great Fear.” Joy paused a moment, trying to sugar coat it. “But lately, you’re being… too good. Again.”

“I can’t- I can’t-“ Fear began calmly. He paused to collect his thoughts, brushing his hands up his face and through his hair. He sighed, almost seethed. “Ian’s life is just so chaotic lately. His school, his driving lessons, his brother. ….. that,” Fear added, pointing to a red light currently dormant on the console.

Joy chuckled, realizing he was pointing at the puberty alarm. “That? Don’t worry bout that. That hasn’t been an issue since sex ed class.”

Fear shuddered so hard, a little flurry of purple particles shook off his body. “Don’t remind me.”

Joy laughed, seeing how that at least broke the tension for one of them. It gradually quieted into a grin when Fear finally gave the tiniest of grins back. Joy placed a comforting hand on Fear’s shoulder. “Look, Ian’s fine for a few minutes. He’s just making some toast,” he commented as they both looked up at the screen. “Nothing bad can happen from that… not even cutting himself with a butter knife.”

Fear chuckled a bit. Yeah, it’s kind of silly to be scared of butter knives… but, they are knives… and they can cut through butter…

“Why don’t you sit back here for a minute? Clear your head. Maybe a quick break is just what you need.” With that, Joy stood up and walked back to the console, leaving Fear on the couch.

Fear closed his eyes, tilting his head back that it hit the back of the couch. It made it so his neck look like it was at a ninety degree angle, thank Alora emotions are made of pure energy and not bones, so it didn’t hurt, maybe pinch a little. He finally opened his tightly shut eyes, starring up at the mural of stars and some planets painted on the headquarters ceiling. Well, most of them, somehow Joy managed to slap a couple of those cheap plastic ones onto the ceiling too. He smiled, Ian sure did like space. He stood up from the couch and walked across the headquarters to the large pane window in the back, overlooking the wide, vast expanse of the mind world. Fear looked at the hardwood floor of headquarters. And the shelves, holding necessities for their job, from idea bulbs to mind manuals, to the newest memories they made that very morning. While built like compartments pocked both organized and disorganized like the old headquarter shelves, they were lined with a strong wood paneling to match Ian’s bookshelves in his bedroom. In fact, headquarters was dressed up a lot like Ian’s room these days. He could still remember when he popped into existence in Ian’s mind, just seconds after Ian was born. Headquarters was an empty canvas, and the emotions were just anew strangers with elf ears and generic business casual clothes. Just a blank canvas. And over time, as they shaped Ian into the teenager he is today, they and their headquarters were changed as well. Well, more like influenced… inspired? Okay, the mind world can be cryptic and confusing. But if it meant being with Ian, helping Ian, Fear wouldn’t have it any other way.

Speaking of cryptic and confusing, Fear looked down as his foot stopped short of stepping on the core memory holder nestled into the floor. It wouldn’t hurt to step on it, but the bright lights beaming through the floor, straight out to the mind world outside, pointing at, fueling every island of personality across the far chasm that separated headquarters from the rest of the mind world. Fear gazed out at each island that fueled what made Ian, Ian. School Island, complete with a stack of textbooks, with a math textbook being very prominent since he won that award. Science Island, glowing with stars and planets to highlight Ian’s fascination with space. Space was his most prominent interest in the sciences. Smartphone Island. That’s a new one. Ian has been glued to his phone lately. Hope that’s a phase. Friendship Island… looking small, as Ian only has one friend. Island upon island, big and small, displaying each important piece of Ian, each fueled by a powerfully important memory that birthed it. And in the center was the largest, grandest island, Family Island, an island fueled and created by Ian’s love for his family. Even his brother, no matter how much of a pain he could be. Definitely highlighted by that statue on Family Island of Barley holding Ian in a headlock and giving him a noogie.

“Hey, it’s Officer Bronco!” Joy cheered, breaking Fear’s walk down his own memory lane. Looks like break’s over. But, Joy may have been right, Fear does feel a little better. 

As Fear approached the console, he immediately stopped dead in his tracks as he, the other emotions and Ian saw Colt and Laurel kiss. “Eww,” the emotions grimaced in unison, Ian recoiling as well thanks to Disgust at control.

“Ugh, I’ll never get used to that.” Disgust tried to hold himself back from throwing up. “I’m done. I’m done,” he said, pushing away from the console for a minute.

Ian went back inside the kitchen getting back to making some toast for his breakfast. His ears caught the sound of loud banging of furniture, sounds of a centaur trying to get into the house without breaking things, and failing. Anger growled, “He’s coming in.”

“Relax,” Joy told Anger, patting him on the shoulder. “Officer Bronco’s just trying to be nice.”

“Hey there, birthday boy,” Colt told Ian. “You working hard or hardly working?” Colt gave that braying laugh of his at his own joke.

That was enough to make even Joy groan. “Are you kidding me?” he exclaimed while the other emotions groaned.

“Well, you know just, making some, toast,” Ian replied sheepishly.

“Why is it so hard to get some breakfast around here??” Anger snapped.

Fear pushed Sadness out of the way as Disgust made his way back to the console. “Okay okay okay,” he stammered. “Let’s just get Ian fed and out of here before anything else happens to him.”

“Hey, Ian, you can learn a lot from Quests of Yore,” Barley called out from the dining room. “You want to play?”

Fear froze just from hearing Barley. “Oh no,” he uttered softly, giving Disgust a chance to take over.

“I don’t,” Ian replied.

“You can be a crafty rogue,” Barley continued. “Or, I know! You can be a wizard!” Barley chimed, grabbing Ian in a side hug.

Fear dove onto the console the second he saw Barley’s spiky bracelet brush against Ian’s sweatshirt.

Ian quickly ducked out from Barley’s grasp. “Hey, careful with dad’s sweatshirt.”

Barley smirked. “I don’t even remember dad wearing that sweatshirt.”

“Well, you do only have two memories of him,” Ian told Barley.

“No, I have three,” Barley corrected. “I remember his beard was scratchy, he had a goofy laugh, and I would play the drums-“

“-on his feet,” Ian finished. The emotions at the console chuckled a bit, happy to hear something about dad, even if it was from Barley.

“Yeah, he went,” Barley began as he drummed on Ian’s foot with his hands, but ended up knocking Ian’s toast onto the floor. “Oops, five second rule.” Barley leaned over to pick up the toast, and ended up snagging a loose thread on Ian’s sweatshirt with his bracelet.

The emotions gasped as they heard the fabric rip. “No!” Fear exclaimed in pure horror.

“It’s okay,” Barley told Ian, just as worried as his brother was. “You just have to pull it.”

“No! Stop!!” Fear exclaimed as he slammed his hands onto the console. 

“Barley, don’t!” Ian pleaded, just as a hole grew from the popped seam on the sleeve. Laurel finally intervened, snipping the loose string with some scissors.

“You know,” Ian said, backing away, “I’m just going to grab some breakfast on the way to school.”

“I’ll sew that up for you after school, okay Ian?” Laurel said as Ian left the kitchen and headed straight for the front door.

Fear was leading the controls, and was making sure Ian went straight out the door. “Okay guys, let’s just get Ian to school.”

“Wait!” Barley called out, catching up to Ian.

“Seriously?” Fear exclaimed, letting go of the controls in pure shock.

“Why won’t he leave us alone?” Anger shouted, as Disgust and Sadness groaned.

“By the laws of Yore, I must dub thee a man today,” Barley explained as he grabbed a sword, which may or may not have been a toy. “Kneel before me.”

“No, no, that’s okay,” Ian replied. “I gotta get to school.”

“Okay,” Barley said. “I’ll pick you up this afternoon. We’ll do the ritual at school.”

“No! You don’t need to do that! Okay, bye!” Ian quickly grabbed his book bag and slammed the front door. Finally out of the house, he gave a big sigh of relief and began to walk down the sidewalk.

Once he was safe, Fear gave a big sigh of relief himself. He gradually let go of the controls and grasped his sides again. Ian’s sixteenth birthday is already a failure.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” Joy said to Fear, placing a calm hand on his shoulder. “The day’s still young. We can fix this.”

Shaking his head, Fear walked away from the console and began to pace back and forth. The other emotions went back to work, including Joy, after glancing over to Fear one more time.

Fear gripped his hands tight against himself, his pace was quickening, his body was shivering with… well, fear. Ian gets one sixteenth birthday, one shot. And already it’s a disaster. It’s all been a disaster since before Ian’s sixteenth birthday. It’s all been a disaster since before his thirteenth birthday. Since before middle school, since before kindergarten, since…

Fear paused. He walked up to the back of Headquarters, placing his hands on the window as he looked out. To the side of the large Family Island was a smaller island. The island displayed photos of a familiar stranger, and an audio cassette tape labeled “Dad.”

… since little child Ian found that tape. Since that memory created Dad Island.

Fear placed a hand on his chest, his fingers resting on stitching that spelled out Lightfoot in cursive. The exact replica of Ian’s Dad’s sweatshirt.

Ian has heard many stories about his dad. How his dad was courageous, and lived every day without worry, without care. If only Ian could be like his dad. If only Fear could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, chapter one may seem a little different from the rest of the chapters, and that's because I wrote it as a test to see if I can write this story without making it confusing. I mean, we are jumping in and out of Ian's mind constantly. Well, I got a few likes on tumblr (where this fic first started) so I decided to keep going.


	2. Bold Fail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After learning a little more about Dad, Fear and the other emotions try to make the new Iandore bold. They failed, mostly due to Fear. But before Ian's birthday could end on a disaster, he and his emotions are in for a surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here where you'll see I don't go beat by beat, word by word, with the story of Onward. But, I do follow along with the movie when I write these chapters, just to make sure I get the broad stroke and some of the lines right.

The morning just got started and the shelves of short term memory were filling up with colorful glowing orbs, each playing a short vision of the memory Ian experienced. Yellow, blue, red, green and purple. Arguably, a little more purple than the other colors. Fear was finishing jotting down some notes in his notebook before he looked up, checking on the other emotions.

Joy was nearby the console, sitting on the couch with his arms and legs stretched out, watching the screen as Ian was in line at Burger Shire. Sadness, Disgust and Anger were by the console discussing what Ian should order for breakfast. Anger wore his red flannel shirt unbuttoned and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Disgust was the only emotion that tucked in his flannel shirt, and he had a comb and compact mirror in the chest pocket of his shirt. Sadness’s clothes had creases and wrinkles from the many times he lie around moping, and one extra button undone at the top of his flannel shirt.

“We can’t order a HuzzahMlet,” Disgust argued to Anger. “It’s too messy, and Ian would have to eat it with a knife and fork. He needs something quick to eat, like one of those breakfast sandwiches.”

Anger mumbled, “Fine. But whatever we get better have dragon bacon on it.”

Joy jumped up from his seat with glee as he added, “Ooh, get hash bites! Those are so good. And coffee!”

“Not too hot, though,” Fear warned as he approached the console, feeling needed. “We don’t want Ian to burn his lips. And he likes it-“

“Black with three or four packets of sugar,” the other emotions echoed Fear, knowing Ian just as much as he does.

Fear squeezed in at the center of the group, looking up at the screen as Ian took his receipt from the coworker behind the register. Fear took the controls, Ian turned and sat down on a bench across from the counter. Smartphone Island lit up as Ian began to reach into his pocket for his smart phone, when Ian’s ear caught someone speaking to him from the next seat over, causing the island to go quiet.

“Hey. Go griffins.”

Ian looked up. “What?”

“You go to Willowdale College?” the friendly stranger asked, motioning to Ian’s sweatshirt.

Ian looked down and gave a slight laugh. “Oh, no. This was my dad’s.”

Fear blinked, he didn’t touch the console. He took a double take when he caught Joy at the controls. “Joy! We can’t talk to strangers!”

“Fear, Ian’s sixteen, not six,” she commented, believing Fear’s over protectiveness was genuinely a joke. The other emotions didn’t think so, with Anger quietly shaking his head and Disgust rubbing his temples.

The friendly stranger noticed the name stitched onto Ian’s sweatshirt. “Lightfoot? Wilden Lightfoot?”

“Uh, yeah,” Ian replied.

The friendly stranger’s face lit up. “I went to college with him.”

“No way.” Ian smiled. The emotions caught sight of Dad Island whirring to life.

Joy looked at Fear with an encouraging smile. “See? It all worked out.”

“Yeah.” The college friend’s face turned to sorrow. “Boy, I was so sorry to hear that he passed away.”

Ian’s face fell into a grief filled frown as well. “Yeah… thanks,” he said softly.

Fear looked to Sadness, then back at Joy. “Nice going,” he couldn’t help but comment.

“Yeah, your dad,” the college friend continued, “he was a great guy, so confident. When he entered a room, everyone noticed.” He chuckled before adding, “You know, he wore the ugliest pair of purple socks every single day.”

Ian laughed to himself from learning such a thing. “What? Why?”

“We asked him the same thing,” the college friend explained. “But your dad, he was just bold. I wish I had that kind of confidence in me.”

“Yeah.” Ian grew a little excited from learning something new about his dad. “Wow, I’ve never heard anything about this before. Do you   
know any-?”

The college friend interrupted. “Oh, looks like it’s time to take this kid to school.”

Ian turned, catching sight of a young boy holding up a carry out bag. The emotions excitement instantly fell, realizing their conversation about Ian’s dad was over. Fear looked over his shoulder as Dad Island dimmed and grew silent again.

“It was nice meeting you,” the college friend said, holding out his hand.

Ian took it and gave it a gentle, friendly handshake. “Yeah, you too.” As the college friend left with his son, Ian looked down at the Lightfoot name on his sweatshirt. “Bold,” he thought under his breath, feeling inspired.

Fear turned back, nodding to himself in agreement. “Bold…”

\----

Disgust pointed to a green bench in front of the school. “That one. Check it before he sits down, I don’t want Ian sitting in unicorn poop again.”

“That only happened twice,” Joy tried to wave off.

“Guys,” Fear announced as he took out his notepad and pen, “I got a great idea to change Ian’s sixteenth birthday around. Let’s make a list of things we can do to make Ian the new Ian.”

“You got that idea from mom,” Anger argued.

“Doesn’t matter,” Fear commented. “School starts in ten minutes, so let’s get thinking.”

Ian took a sip of his coffee before pulling out a small notebook from his back pocket. He flipped it open to an empty page and wrote down in black ink ‘The New Me’

“How about we have Ian speak up more,” Sadness softly suggested.

“Excellent idea, Sadness,” Fear commented, writing the note down under his own list titled ‘The New Iandore.’

Joy pressed a button, Ian wrote down on his list ‘Speak up more.’

“Ian can’t be sixteen and not have his driving permit,” Anger said bluntly. “That’s not fair.”

“Learn to drive,” Fear said, writing it down, his hand shaking a bit. Ian wrote down ‘Learn to drive’ on his list as well.

“He needs friends,” Disgust pointed out. “We need people for his party.”

Ian wrote down ‘Invite people to party,’ and so did Fear.

“Oh! Oh! I got one!” Joy jumped up and down, bursting with excitement over a brilliant idea. Instead of explaining it, Joy flicked a few switches and levers on the console. Fear watched the screen cautiously, wondering what Joy just did.

Ian added to the list in bold words ‘Be like dad.’

The other emotions gently praised Joy for the idea. A small smile gradually spread on Fear’s face before he added it onto his list as well.

The school bell rang through the air outside. Ian put his notebook away, placed his backpack over his shoulders and tossed his breakfast trash and leftovers into the garbage by the bench.

“Okay gang, that’s first bell,” Fear told the other emotions as he took the lead. “Let’s get in there before the tardy bell rings and show the world the new Iandore Lightfoot!”

Ian looked up at the two story school building, the concrete structure looking dominating and intimidating as it casted it’s darkened shadow over the teenage elf standing at the foot of the stairs leading inside.

Fear tried desperately to swallow that ball of anxieties tensing up in his throat.

\----

Ian made his way down the hall to the doorway of his classroom, but stopped as he looked inside. There was the usual sight of the teacher prepping her notes and kids doing random things at their desks besides school work. At the front was Ian’s empty seat, and behind him was that usual troll, resting his thick sweaty feet on the back of his chair.

“Him again?” Disgust gagged. “Ugh, I’m gonna be sick.”

“This is good,” Joy said, trying to spin things into a positive. “We can use this experience to have Ian speak up for himself.”

“I got this,” Anger declared, cracking his knuckles.

“No no no no!” Fear immediately placed a hand between Anger and the console. Anger glared up at Fear.

“Fear’s right, we don’t need to be mean. Let’s try just asking him.” Joy pressed a button on the console.

Ian approached his desk and cleared his throat quietly. “Hey, do you mind not putting your feet up on my chair today?”

“Sorry dude, the troll replied, lazily keeping his attention on his smart phone. “Got to keep my feet elevated. Helps get blood flow to the brain.”

Joy shrugged and pressed two more buttons. Fear looked back up at the screen, anxiety beginning to creep up his spine and tightly curl his purple nerve into his blue hair.

“Yeah, but it’s hard for me to get into my seat with your feet up like that,” Ian tried again.

“Well, if I can’t think, I’m gonna do poor in school,” the troll replied, more argumentative. He glanced up from his phone and eyed Ian. “You don’t want me to do bad at school, do you?”

That shift in tone and stare was enough for Fear to step in. “It’s not working. It’s not working!” He pushed Joy aside as he slammed his hand down on the console.

“Uh, well… okay,” Ian mumbled off as he tried to squeeze in, giving a defeated sigh.

Disgust covered his mouth as he ran off to throw up. Anger and Sadness eyed Fear, while Joy looked at him shocked and confused. All Fear could do is stand there, tucking his hands under his arms.

\----

It was afternoon, and Ian was in the back of a small group of students at a driving school near the high school.

“Okay, let’s not screw this up guys,” Disgust told the other emotions.

“Ian’s logged in plenty of hours with mom and her car,” Joy said optimistically, “he’s got this.” Joy glanced over at Fear, his arms beginning to tremble as he stared blankly up at the screen. “Right, Fear?”

“Huh?” Fear snapped out of it and fumbled with his sweatshirt. “Oh, right, right.”

“Driving test,” the driving instructor announced in her gravely gremlin tone. “Any volunteers?”

Anger slammed his fist down on a button. Ian’s hand shot up defiantly.

Before long, Ian was behind the wheel of one of the vehicles on loan from the driving school. He took a deep breath, trying to keep his composure, and it was working so far. Until he looked up at the highway before turning onto the onramp.

Sadness glanced over as he saw Fear walking up next to Anger. While Anger was at the controls, helping Ian stay focused, Fear kept his eyes on the screen, placing one hand on the edge of the console.

At the top of the onramp, Ian glanced over his shoulder. The cars sped by at a speed much too fast for Fear to comprehend, causing him to shiver.

“Just merge into traffic,” the driving teacher instructed.

“Yeah, in a minute,” Ian nearly sputtered, trying to focus on the road.

Anger growled, trying to find a gap in the traffic for Ian to merge into. He was defiant to get this done, but was struggling as Ian seemed to veer out faster than Anger could let him veer in. “What’s wrong with this kid?” Anger spat, not knowing Fear now has both hands on the console, gripping the edge tightly.

“Just merge into traffic!” the instructor now shouted.

Fear’s instincts kicked in. “ABORT!!” he ordered as he grabbed the controls, causing Anger to back away.

“I’m not ready!” Ian shouted.

“Pull over,” the instructor told Ian.

“Oh come on!” Anger snapped, storming off.

“Fear, what was that?” Disgust snapped at him.

Joy stepped between them. “That- that- that- that, was, uhmm… yeah, we’ll try again next time,” he said, running out of excuses.

Fear couldn’t hear them as he saw the driving instructor write something down on her notepad. Seeing the failure get written down in Ian’s files just made Fear hang his head.

\----

The final bell rang, the students filtered out to the front of the school. While many began to leave either by ride, by bus, or by walking, some stayed behind. A few students were some members of the science club, chatting away at the entrance of the school. Ian just tried to casually stand on the sidewalk nearby, alone.

“Okay gang, third time’s the charm,” Joy cheered, trying to boost everyone’s downbeat spirits. “We can still turn this day around if we get some guests for Ian’s party. Disgust?”

“I got this. Follow my lead.” Disgust took the lead at the controls, with Joy assisting. Outside, Ian was thinking out loud what to say, jotting down key words for his prepared invitation on his hand. Figuring out what Disgust was planning, Fear stood up from his seat on the couch, took out his notebook and made some notes of his own.

“No Joy, no one says dudes anymore,” Disgust corrected. “Try gang.”

“Got it.” Joy flipped a switch or two on the console, a yellow memory orb rolled out into short term memory with a vision of the notes on Ian’s hand. “Okay, let’s do this!”

“And you,” Disgust snapped her attention to Fear, “stay back.”

“Disgust!” Joy exclaimed in shock.

“Whatever.” Disgust took over at the console.

Ian walked up to the students, trying to remain calm and friendly. “Hey, what’s up gang?” he greeted them, getting their attention.

“Oh, uh, Ian, right?” one asked.

Ian was a little surprised by that. “Oh, I didn’t know you knew my… anyway…” Ian looked down at his hand. He froze when he realized it was glossy from sweating nervously, causing the notes on his hand to smear into an incoherent mess of ink.

“Wait, what happened?” Joy asked aloud.

Disgust glared at Fear, he stepped back. “I-it wasn’t me!” Fear replied, scared of the outcome without himself at the controls.  
“It’s that stupid social anxiety thing again!” Disgust snapped, racing to the short term memory shelves.

“I thought the mind workers fixed that glitch!” Anger shouted in frustration.

“You can’t fix anxiety,” Sadness commented as Disgust loaded the yellow memory orb into the recall playback. The memory of Ian’s notes on his hands appeared onscreen, but the image was blurred to the point that it was illegible.

“Ugh, focus, Ian, focus,” Disgust thought aloud as she tried adjusting the memory orb.

“Anger, don’t smack it!” Joy shouted as she and Sadness ran over to help Disgust.

The console was unmanned, or unemotioned. This was Fear’s chance! He took out his notepad as he took his spot at the controls.  
Ian immediately wrapped his sweaty hands to his side, not only to hide them, but to remain calm. It wasn’t working, however, as words seemed to fail him at the moment. “Uh, if you like parties… I was going to do a party- I mean, if you’re not doing anything tonight, and it’s okay if you are, and if you like cake, like I like cake, I have a cake… over, at my house?”

“Are you inviting us to a party?” the classmate asked.

“That’s the one,” Ian replied.

“Fear, get away from that console!!” Disgust shouted. Fear shrieked as he pulled his arms away and wrapped them around his sides. The emotions raced up to the console, Disgust watching in horror, then rage, when a few purple memories rolled into short term. “Ugh, Fear, you ruined everything!”

“Sure, we don’t have any plans,” the classmate told Ian with a polite smile.

The emotions watched as the other classmates nodded and agreed to the awkward invitation. Fear gave a sigh of relief, his hands falling to his sides. Joy couldn’t help but give a told you so smirk to Disgust. “See, Fear’s got this. And he got people to Ian’s party. What could happen?”

The oncoming sound of loud rock music and roaring engine coming in fast was enough to make Joy freeze up. Realizing that familiar sound, Fear went back into panic mode. “No no no no no no no…”

“No no no no no,” Ian whispered, watching Barley’s van careen across the road.

“Ha ha! Is that the birthday boy I see?” The van came to a screeching halt by the sidewalk, right by Ian and the classmates. Barley leaped out of the driver’s side, clad in that usual ridiculous Viking cosplay outfit he’s known to wear on some of his role playing game nights. “Behold, your chariot awaits!” he bellowed.

“Just ignore him,” Disgust told the other emotions. “Maybe he’ll go away.”

“That doesn’t work,” Sadness said.

“It better work this time,” Disgust snapped back.

“Sir Iandore of Lightfoot,” Barley called out, followed by blaring the van’s horn.

Anger roared furiously. “Ugh! Just take the hint!” Disgust snarled.

“It’s okay! I can handle this!” Joy took control.

“Barley, hey,” Ian finally replied. “We were just about to take the bus.”

“The bus? Nae!” Barley triumphantly continued. “I will give you and your companions transport upon Guinevere.”

“Uh, who’s Guinevere?” a student asked.

“My mighty steed.” Barley proudly placed his hand on his van. The small vibration was enough for the front bumper to fall right off. “Oh, that’s embarrassing,” he laughed off.

“No kidding,” Disgust replied sourly.

Joy glanced over at Fear, who was now squeezing his sides so tight he was creating creases in his sweatshirt. He whimpered softly, worry causing him to begin buckling under the pressure. “Now now, Joy tried to smooth things over. “It’s just Barley. We can handle this.”

“You got something on your face,” a classmate pointed out, with a smile that was trying to hold back a chuckle or two.

Ian placed a hand on his face, trying to wipe off what it could be. He pulled it back, only to realize it was the ink from his hand, and now it’s smeared all over his face.

Fear couldn’t take it anymore! He pushed Joy out and he stepped in.

“You know, I just remembered, my birthday is, uh, cancelled,” Ian said quickly. “Complete misunderstanding. Gotta go. Bye.” Ian quickened his pace towards the van, trying to get out of there as soon as possible.

Fear’s quickened breaths finally slowed. He gradually looked to his left then his right, catching the gaze and glares of the other emotions. He swallowed harshly before stepping back from the console.

“That’s it!” Anger began to march right up to Fear.

“No no no no no no!” Joy grabbed Anger and Disgust by their arms and ran off shouting out. “Let’s have a meeting! Emergency meeting! Right now! Sadness, Fear, watch Ian please!” The three disappeared from sight as they ran into a short hallway into the break room.  
Fear couldn’t help it as he ran that direction, slowing his steps until he stopped by the entrance to the hallway. The break room had no door, so the three emotions were keeping their voices to a dull whisper. But soon Fear could make out an angry and a disgusted voice commenting things like “he’s falling apart… he can’t take it anymore, I can’t take it anymore… he’s worthless… Ian’s better off without him…” Sighing in defeat, Fear placed his back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position on the floor.

After Ian was seated in the van, Sadness looked over at Fear. With Ian fine for a while, Sadness approached the purple emotion sprawled out on the floor. “Hey… are you okay?”

“Yes… no…” Fear closed his eyes and rubbed them with his hands. “I don’t know…”

“It’s okay to be sad,” Sadness told him.

“For you it is,” Fear almost snapped back, before recoiling back into a worried depression. “Sorry, it’s just… a very bad day…”

Sadness nodded, he sat down next to Fear. A moment or two of silence passed, Sadness sitting with his hands held at his sides, and Fear looking away from Sadness, keeping to his own pity. Eventually, Sadness lowered his hands, placing one on Fear’s hand. A soft sniffle caused Fear’s slender nose to scrunch up a tad, before a tear dropped from his eye.

“I’m not doing a good job lately,” Fear finally admitted to Sadness. “Or… maybe I am… maybe I’m doing too good a job… I mean… I-I’m trying to do my part too, I’m trying to help Ian…” Sadness nodded. “I don’t know what’s gotten over me… things have gotten way too stressful for Ian, and now Joy told me you guys were talking about me behind my back…”

“Joy told you?” Sadness asked.

Fear immediately looked over at Sadness with shocked eyes. “What did you say?”

Sadness confirmed, “You said Joy told you?”

“I said that?” Fear took a double take as he heard the other emotions approaching. He shifted so he was kneeling in front of Sadness. “Don’t tell the others about this.”

“I-“

“Please please please.” Fear placed his hands together, begging.

Sadness nodded. “Okay.”

“Thank you.” Fear stood up, giving Sadness a hand up as well. “Let’s get back to the console before they see us.”

“See us doing what?”

“Shh!”

\----

Ian dragged his feet across his bedroom floor, dropping his dad’s sweatshirt onto a hope chest next to his desk. He flopped himself down at his desk, he took the small notebook out of his pocket. One by one, Ian crossed out the things on his list. Speak up more. Crossed out. Learn to drive. Crossed out. Invite people to party. Crossed out. Be like dad…

Ian hesitated, but admitted defeat. Crossed out.

Fear crossed out ‘be like dad’ on his list as well before sadly putting his notebook away.

The air in Headquarters was thick with silence and tension. Joy, Sadness and Disgust watched the screen, while Fear hung his head, and Anger eyed Fear with a scowl.

“That’s it,” Anger finally spoke up.

“Anger,” Joy told him, “you promised we wouldn’t talk about this.”

“Well I am talking about it!” Anger spat. He forcefully pointed a finger at Fear’s direction. “This guy is nothing but trouble!”

“Finally,” Disgust rolled his eyes.

“He’s not trouble,” Joy said, trying to crack a joke. “He’s a Fear.”

“He’s a menace!” Anger barked. “We’re trying to do our jobs, and he keeps taking over!”

“Exactly!” Disgust snapped. “Ian can’t be Ian when he’s scared all the time!”

Fear backed away as they emotions stepped forward. They were all in their argument, but appeared to be gaining up on him. Anger and Disgust kept yelling, Joy kept trying to diffuse the fighting, Sadness could only get one word in once in a while before getting cut off. It was building and building, piling on Fear, becoming too much. He placed his hands under his arms and squeezed tightly, his nerve curled up until it was hidden in his blue hair. He closed his eyes shut, trying not to listen, trying not to be there. But it just kept growing.

“STOOOOOOOP!!”

Fear finally opened his eyes to see the emotions staring at him in shock. Did he… was he the one who said that?

A ping sounded. Fear turned to see Dad Island lit up and active. The emotions turned to the screen. They watched as Ian pulled a small audio cassette out of his desk drawer labeled “Dad”

“Ian’s doing the thing again,” Sadness said. The emotions approached the console, stood and watched. They knew this ritual all too well.  
Ian placed the cassette in the tape player and pressed play. He rested his head onto his arms folded on his desk. He listened. Two voices on the tape. One was muffled, but the familiar voice of his mom. The other was clear as day, a voice that became familiar with each replay:

“… I think I got it… Hello? Hello?... Is that right?... Well, I’m trying to… ha ha ha, I know… Well, let’s find out… Okay, bye…”

The tape stopped. After a brief melancholy pause, Ian pressed rewind.

Joy smiled, looking like he was going to burst. “I love this part. This is my favorite part.” The other emotions gave a little chuckle as they continued to watch.

Ian pressed play. He lifted his head, looking up at the cork board on the wall in front of him, tacked on were a couple of old, random pictures of his dad that he found in storage around the house over the years. He looked at one with soft eyes, and a softer smile. “Hi, dad.”

The tape replied. “Hello? Hello?”

“It’s me, Ian.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah, right. Did you have a good day?”

“Well, I’m trying to.”

“Yeah, me too. Though I could clearly use some help. Sure do wish I could spend a day with you sometime. There’s so much we could do. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

“Well, let’s find out.”

“Yeah, I’d love to. We could-“

“Okay, bye.” Click.

Ian’s face fell. “Yeah… bye.”

The emotions smiled their usual melancholy smiles, with Sadness wiping away his usual tears. They watched as Ian sat alone in his room, feeling alone. But the emotions were reminded from Ian’s ritual their purpose. Ian is never alone. He has them, they are Ian. Ian may not have a dad, and the emotions wished as hard as he did that he did. But the emotions will always be there to make Ian’s life as complete as possible.

Except, Fear was feeling something a little different today. He glanced back at Dad Island, at the small display of pictures, replicas of the same pictures Ian had tacked to his cork board. Dad was confident, dad was bold. And Fear… he’s a Fear. Fear gave an exhale as he shrugged his shoulders, feeling as lonely as Ian was in that very bedroom.

\----

An hour passed. Ian was in the living room, sewing up the popped seam on dad’s old sweatshirt. Disgust was at the controls, Joy on one side of the console, Fear on the other, with Anger and Sadness sitting nearby on a couch. Disgust was doing just fine, and Fear knew that. But with each stitch, and that sewing needle, it looked so sharp, and Ian could prick his finger at any moment.

“I think-“ Fear began, but stopped when Disgust glared at him. Fear hugged himself for a minute, before stepping forward towards the console. “But what if-“ Disgust held his hand out to stop him, and Anger growled. Fear went back to placing his hands under his arms.

As Family Island lit up, Joy once again tried to cut the tension with a nice distraction. “Oh look, it’s mom.”

Laurel sat down on the couch next to Ian. “You must have learned from a sewing master,” she joked.

“Yeah, a very humble sewing master,” Ian replied, finishing the last stitch on the seam. He put the needle and thread away. Ian brushed a finger across the name Lightfoot, the emotions saw Dad Island light up. “What was dad like, when he was my age?” Ian asked Laurel. “Was he always super confident?”

“Oh, no,” Laurel replied. “It took him a while to figure out who he was.”

Ian looked down at nothing in particular. “I wish I met him.”

“Me too. But you know what?” Laurel placed a comforting hand on Ian’s shoulder to get him to look back up. “When your dad got sick, he fought as hard as he could to see you more than anything.”

Ian just looked away, no response. The emotions watched as his island of personality went dormant. They looked at each other, just as speechless as Ian was, not knowing what to say, what to do. Even Fear was at a loss.

“You know,” Laurel finally replied. “I have something for you. I was going to wait until after your cake, but I think you’ve waited long enough.”

Ian looked up curiously. “What is it?”

Laurel smiled, revealing her excitement after all these years. “It’s a gift… from your dad.”

The emotions were in as big of a daze of wonder as Ian was. Even Fear couldn’t believe his ears. The purple emotion finally pushed that one word question out of his quivering lips. “… dad?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may also notice a few typos, specifically that I occasionally mess up the pronouns of some of Ian's emotions. To simplify things, Ian's emotions are all male. But, when I write the fanfic, I can't help but imagine Riley's emotions, and I accidentally switch to "she" pronouns cause half of her emotions are female. I try to catch and fix them, but one or two get missed in the proofreading process.  
> And personally, I can't help but imagine Ian at least has one female emotion, and it's his Disgust that I see as female.


	3. Magic Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian is surprised by a gift from his dad, and the emotions are surprised with a gift that they didn't know Ian had.

“What do you mean it’s from dad?” Barley asked, following Ian upstairs.

“I dunno,” Ian replied. “Mom said it was for both of us.”

Laurel just returned from the attic, in her possession was a large, long object wrapped in brown fabric. In confusion and curiosity, Ian and Barely took one side of the long awaiting present and carried it into Ian’s room. “Dad said to wait and give this to you when you both turned sixteen,” Laurel explained, also curious, but also excited with anticipation. “I have no idea what it is.”

Joy was bouncing on his heels in excitement. “Ooh, I love surprises. What do you think it is?” he asked the other emotions at the console.

“What makes you think we know?” Anger replied.

“I’m just as lost as you are,” Disgust shrugged.

Fear was just as affixed to the screen as the emotions watched Ian and Barley gently place the present on Ian’s bed. Ian pulled the string, untying the present, loosening what was inside. As the fabric quietly unfurled, it unveiled the top of a wooden staff, complete with three prongs twisting around themselves.

The emotions were just as puzzled as Ian was. Acting like he knew exactly what it was, Barley pushed Ian out of the way as he picked up the wooden staff. “It’s a wizard’s staff,” Barley said in awe, followed by excitement. “Dad was a wizard!”

“What?” Ian exclaimed in shock.

“What??” his emotions echoed, just as lost.

Laurel stepped in, clearing things up with Barley. “Your dad was an accountant. Sure, he got into some weird things when he got sick…”

“Hey, look.” Sadness pointed to a small, aged letter tucked into the fabric. Believing it could have answers, Fear input the commands into the console.

“It’s a note.” Ian took the note and began reading it aloud. “Dear Ian and Barley. Long ago, the world was full of wonder. It was adventurous, exciting, and best of all, there was magic. And that magic helped all those in need. But, it wasn’t easy to master, so others found a different way to get by. And over time, magic faded away. But, I hope there’s a little magic left in you. I wrote this spell to see for myself just who my sons grew up to be.”

Headquarters was silent for a brief moment before Disgust broke the mood. “Magic? I thought that was just made up garbage in Barley’s stupid games.”

But more questions were answered when Ian found another note. “Visitation spell.”

“Magic is real?” Sadness asked.

“No no no no,” Fear tried to convince himself more than the others. “It’s just make believe, like the tooth sprite, or the Solstice troll.”  
Joy didn’t need convincing, as he was glowing with enough happiness to light Headquarters for days.

Barley took the spell parchment and glanced over it for a second before his face lit up. “Says here, with this spell, we can bring dad back. For one whole day, dad will be back!”

“Back to life?” Ian took the note back and read it over, seeing if this was misread, or just too unbelievable to be true. “That’s not possible!”

“It is with this,” Barley declared, holding the staff in hand.

“No!” Anger barked. “It’s just impossible!”

The emotions immediately turned when they felt that warm glow from an island behind him. They saw Dad Island light up as they heard Ian’s voice echo with wonder, “I’m going to meet dad?”

Disgust waved his hands, frowning in disbelief. “Okay guys, seriously? Who believes this junk?”

“Why would dad lie to us?” Sadness asked quietly.

“Who would believe magic is going to bring back a dead guy?” Anger argued.

“Guys!” Joy pointed to the island off in the near distance. “Ian clearly wants to give this a chance.”

“Because he’s desperate. We all are, Joy,” Disgust explained. “But magic isn’t going to work because it’s not real.”

“And if it doesn’t work, then nothing happens, but if it does…” Joy’s smile was beginning to fade as he realized he wasn’t winning over Disgust or Anger. Even Sadness was beginning to waver back into hopelessness. “Uh, Fear. You believe this could work, right?”

Fear simply stepped back before shrugging, lost in the confusion of all this chaos. One minute Ian was stitching up a sweater after his catastrophe of a birthday, and now there’s talk of magic and raising the dead??

“A spell this advanced would need an assist element,” Barley explained. “For that, dad would have had to find a- Phoenix gem!” he interrupted himself triumphantly as he pulled a glowing orange gem out of the cloth.

“Something’s happening!” Fear pointed to the screen, and the emotions went back to the console.

“Wait a minute, is this dangerous?” Laurel asked.

Fear froze in place. “Da- da- da- did she just say-?”

“We’re about to find out,” Barley declared, firmly placing the Phoenix gem within the nest of twisted wooden prongs at the end of the staff.

Fear gulped, wide eyed, hands under his arms.

Barley slowly stepped back, gradually gripping the staff as if he was savoring this very moment. He suddenly drew his hand back with a yelp of pain.

Fear screamed, the other emotions reacted with shock and worry.

“What?” Laurel asked in fear.

Barley replied sheepishly, “Splinter.”

“Oh come on!” Anger spat.

“Seriously?” Disgust declared exasperated. “Is he serious? Are you serious?”

Even Joy wasn’t so amused with Barley this time, while Fear tried to keep from fainting in relief.

Barley quickly glanced over the spell on the parchment before confidently holding the staff in the air. Ian and Laurel waited in anticipation, while the emotions leaned forward, wondering what was going to happen next.

“Only once is all we get, grant me this rebirth,” Barley recited. “Until tomorrow’s sun as set, one day to walk the earth!”

And…. Nothing.

The emotions blinked, confusing gradually washing over them, before they saw Barley try again.

“Only once is all we get, grant me this rebirth. Until tomorrow’s sun has set, one day to walk the earth.”

Nothing.

Barley tried again… and again, and again, and again….

One by one, the emotions left the console. First Anger, reading over a mind manual. Then Disgust, who’d rather check on his hair and give it a quick touch up with his comb. Then Sadness, who sadly flopped face down on the couch in defeat. Then Joy, who was playing with a kaleidoscope. All that was left at the console was Fear, who was staring at the screen, losing his hope as he watched Ian hopelessly sit on his bed, softly petting the resting dragon Blazey.

Laurel finally, softly, spoke up. “Barley…”

That’s all Barley needed to hear to finally give up. He lowered the staff against Ian’s desk, then sat down on the bed.

Laurel glanced at both her boys, feeling their sorrow. She then picked up the letter and explained, “Your dad fought so badly to see you boys, that he tried anything. That’s something, right?”

Sadness approached the console and rested a hand on a button. “Yeah,” Ian replied, faking a smile.

Laurel was about to say something to Barley, but he was already leaving the bedroom quietly. She turned back to Ian, trying to muster a smile. “Hey, you want to come with me to pick up your cake?”

“No, that’s okay,” Ian replied, faking a smile back. “Thanks, mom.”

Laurel gave Ian a soft kiss on his cheek before he left him alone in his room.

Resigning in defeat, Fear turned and walked to the back of Headquarters. He placed his hands on the window as he looked over at Dad Island, sighing to himself, his nerve hanging so low against his back it was almost uncurled. Of course, just what they needed to top the worst sixteenth birthday ever: false hope.

Ian was left alone, sitting at his desk. About twenty minutes passed, but they felt so long and empty. He didn’t even bother to lift his head, just looking down at the two pieces of parchment with dad’s handwriting on them.

Sadness turned his head, then sat up, then stood up. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a good look at dad’s handwriting. It’s so neat, yet so fancy, and so faded over time. Feeling called to the console, Sadness crept up to the controls. He placed a hand on a small lever, looked up at the letter onscreen, and gently pushed the lever forward.

With a sigh, Ian lazily and sorrowfully picked up a paper and read. “Only once is all we get… grant me this rebirth…”

Fear took a double take as he heard Ian’s words. “Sadness!” Fear bolted towards the console, the other emotions right behind him. “What are you doing?”

Sadness tried to keep his balance as Fear pushed him away from the console. “I’m sorry,” he whimpered, placing his hands under his arms. “Ian was just so sad, and I was reading dad’s writings, and-“

“Look!” Joy gasped, pointing just at the edge of Ian’s line of sight.

Ian glanced over at the staff leaning against his desk. Nestled atop amongst the three branching prongs, the Phoenix gem glowed, and began to shake with life. Ian nearly knocked over his desk chair as he jumped back in shock.

Fear let go of the console as he stared up at the gem, mouth agape, letting his hands drop to his sides.

“Am I seeing this?” Disgust told Anger and Sadness. “I can’t be seeing this. We’re seeing this, right?”

“It’s working,” Joy whispered in awe, approaching the console and activating a few buttons and switches.

Ian continued, “Until tomorrow’s sun has set…”

Joy was suddenly pulled away from the console by Fear. “Joy!” Fear gave a double take as he watched the whole console begin to glow. Not just the controls, not just the base. The whole thing. And not just the normal five colors that specified each prominent emotion. A bright, ominous aura of white.

The wild thrashing of the Phoenix gem caused the staff to roll, falling off the table. Acting fast, Fear reached the console, making Ian reach for the staff, catching it before it hit the ground. As Ian lifted the staff, his eyes were wide in wonder as he saw the carvings on the wizard’s staff wooden body light up in a magic blue light.

Expanding from the console, a bright aura of white coated the headquarters from floor to ceiling, expanding over objects, even the emotions. Joy shivered with delight as if she was being tickled when the aura enveloped her. Disgust and Sadness ran to the windows as they watched the aura extend into the mind world, coating every last inch of the landscape and anything within in the cooling, bright, magical glow. Though far away, they could barely make out the mind workers reacting in shock and confusion.

“Shantar’s Talon!” Anger exclaimed. “This junk is real??”

“Guys, what do we do?” Disgust asked, out of ideas due to the confusion of this new power overcoming Ian’s mind world.

Fear was trembling, lost in his daze of fright, worry and fear. He felt a hand on his shoulder break him out of his trance, then slowly turned to Joy, giving him a nod and a smile. Fear closed his eyes, grit his teeth, prayed that he wasn’t making a big mistake, and pushed two big levers forward.

“One day to walk the earth!” Ian finished reciting the spell.

Ian gripped both hands on the wizard staff as the magic whipped wildly around the room, catching any little object in the cyclone of power, with Ian in the dead center.

Fear pulled back on the big levers, holding on for dear life so Ian could keep holding on. Around them, the sparkling shine of the magic flew around them in a whirlwind of power. The emotions could feel the ground below them trembling as Headquarters seemed to quake.

“This is madness!” Anger shouted.

“This is amazing!” Joy shouted.

“Everyone!” Fear ordered. “Just focus on Ian! We need to keep him safe!”

Just then, the bedroom door creaked open. “Hey, what are you doing in here- Holy Tooth of Zadar!” Barley exclaimed as he saw the chaos.

“You? Now? Why?” Disgust snapped at Barley.

“Focus!” Fear shouted at Disgust. “Ian needs us!”

A sharp stream of lightning shot from the Phoenix gem and onto the ground. Sparks of magic swirled around the ground before finally revealing feet inside a pair of striped purple socks inside a pair of loafers.

“It’s the socks!” Joy cheered. “It’s the hideous purple socks!”

“Joy, not now!” Fear snapped.

The magic rose, the aura forming into legs clothed in beige slacks. As it passed the belt, the magic began to struggle. Suddenly, the magic glow grew a darker, bolder gold, the Phoenix gem rose from the staff as the magic became more violent, more powerful. Overpowering him, Ian felt his body being pushed back. He planted the staff base first on the ground and forced his body upright, despite how the rug was failing him from standing his ground.

Seeing Fear struggle, Joy grabbed Fear by the waist and pulled back. “Guys, it’s too strong!” Fear choked out from his gritted teeth. The other emotions were going to help, but stopped when they heard that familiar, annoying voice.

“Wait!” Barley called out, running up towards Ian. “I can help!”

“No!!” the emotions shouted as Fear let go of the levers and slammed his hand on a button.

“Barley! No!” Ian shouted, pulling the wizard staff away from Barley.

Crack!

An overpowering bright white light shot from the console, throwing the emotions back.

………

Fear’s head was in a daze, he felt sore all over. He felt like he had to will his eyes open. When he did, all he could see was white. He tried to sit up, pushing through the pain with a groan. He could barely see his hands planted on the ground through the pristine white… mist? Smoke? Fog?

“Joy?” he called out into the vapors. He tried to stand up, but between his sore body and lacking balance, he fell back onto his knees. “Sadness?” Fear tried crawling, immediately bumping his head into a pane of glass. He looked up to see the fog had dissipated enough so he could make out a cluster of cracks on the window, shaped like his silhouette, if he was thrown back, upside down, splayed out and terrified. That explains the aches and disorientation. Trying again to will his bearing back, Fear stood up again, wobbling a bit like his legs were made of jelly. He took one slow, cautious step, holding his hands out into the smoky void. “Anger?”

Out of the fog, a thick red hand shot towards Fear. He gripped tight around Fear’s slender neck and shook violently. “Don’t touch me!!” an irate voice roared, while the fog cleared to reveal a growling red Anger.

Fear finally struggled free from Anger’s grasp, taking a big breath of precious air. “Hello, Anger,” he gagged.

“Where is everybody?” Disgust’s voice called out from the fog.

“Oh no,” Sadness sighed. “We’re blind.”

“Found it!” Joy exclaimed. “Found the console! Everybody, just follow my glow!”

Fear squinted his eyes to make out a yellow aura filtering through the haze. He carefully crept forward, thankfully the fog fading with every step. The light took the form of Joy, before becoming Joy waving his hands to get everyone’s attention.

“That’s right, just focus on me,” Joy encouraged. “You’re doing great. Let’s see, one, two, three, four,” Joy counted as the emotions emerged from the smoke. “And, we’re back.”

Now that they were all together, the emotions glanced at each other with confused, uncertain looks on their faces. “What was that?” Fear finally spoke up. “What just happened? And… Ian!” Fear pushed Joy out of the way as he looked up at the screen. There was smoke in the bedroom too, and he could make out that Ian was on the floor, coughing. “No no no no no, Ian. Quick, someone check if he’s hurt! Is his airway obstructed?”

Joy looked over the vitals. “Ian’s a bit shaken, but he’s fine.” The sight onscreen shifted as Ian got up onto his feet. For a brief moment, Barley was visible onscreen, helping his brother up. “Oh, he’s such a nice brother,” Joy smiled.

“No, this is terrible,” Disgust gasped, holding up his hand to his gaping mouth.

Sadness sighed as he agreed with Disgust, “It didn’t work.”

“Not that! Ian’s room is a mess!” Disgust threw both hands out to exaggerate the mess of clothes, books and knick knacks strewn around the room. “This is going to take hours to organize.”

Fear suddenly tensed up. “What was that?”

The emotions were silent, staring at Fear awkwardly. Some of them looked concerned, others skeptical.

“That noise? What was that noise?” Feeling his self conscious doubts rising up his spine, Fear squealed with fright, “Please tell me I’m not the only one who heard that!”

All five emotions tensed up this time, they all heard that thunk.

Ian and Barley glanced over at Ian’s closet. The gaping alcove looked almost barren now, say for a pile of clothes balled up in a corner. They gazed curiously as the pile moved, like there was something underneath. It was confirmed someone, when a brown loafer brushed its way out, followed by a khaki covered leg.

“Tell me I’m not the only one imagining this, guys,” Disgust commented, wide eyed.

Joy happily hugged Fear to his side. “Look, it’s the socks!” Joy pointed out with great joy.

Ian and Barley watched as the entire pile stood up, Ian’s emotions anticipating the very second that was to come next.

The pile flumped backwards, revealing nothing but a pair of slacks standing on their own.

“Ahh!!” Ian and Barley shouted in surprise.

The emotions echoed the same response, followed by Fear’s body going limp as his eyes began to roll into the back of his head. “Not now, not now,” Joy told him, calmly, cheerfully, holding Fear up by the collar. “Stay with me, Fear. Ian needs us.”

Fear was nothing but a mumble of random words as his faint body flopped forward onto the console.

“There’s supposed to be a top part!” Barley whispered in utter confusion and fright. “I remember dad having a top part!”

Ian’s knees nearly buckled as his mind felt like it was at a loss of this whole situation. “Oh, what did I do? This is horrible!”

The longest brief pause passed before the legs finally moved, the pants beginning to slowly walk forward. Every other step was cautious, feeling around for ground. The pants eventually stopped, by coincidence right in front of dad.

Fear was finally standing onto his knees, draping one arm over the console while his other hand rubbed the faintness out of his eye. Once he was back into consciousness, he glanced around at the other emotions, frozen, unsure. “What are we supposed to do?” Anger whispered aloud.

Joy decided to break the uneasiness, he approached the console, inputing a few keys next to Fear’s arm. “Wait, what?” he asked, before turning his sight towards the screen.

Slowly, Ian knelt down, stretching out a hand. He could get a good look at the waistline, and saw where the belt ends there was nothing but a blue aura of magic. He placed his hand over top, feeling nothing but the occasional coolness emanating from the glow.

“Woah,” Joy was in awe.

Ian immediately stepped back as the pants moved again, this time walking a different direction, away from the boys.

“It’s really him,” Barley muttered to himself before attempting to call out, “Dad, we are in your house!” No response, or whatever response could you get from pants? Hm, response… Barley knelt down and carefully approached the feet. He tapped his hand softly on a loafer, the leg fidgeted in response.

“What are you doing?” Ian asked.

Barley drummed softly on the foot, like he used to do on his dad’s feet when he was a kid. The pants stepped back, then a brief pause, then responds with two taps on the floor.

The emotions softly gasped, echoing Ian’s reaction.

Cautiously, the legs moved forward, one foot feeling around until it brushed up against Barley’s foot. Once it found the top of Barley’s shoe, he gave a similar soft drum cadence. Barley smiled, the few memories he had flooding back into his mind at once. “Yeah, dad,” he said softly, tapping his foot in return. “It’s me.”

The feet took a step back, then began to feel around on the floor again. Lost in its blind search, the sentient pair of pants found its way back to Ian. While it was just near, the foot felt around until it brushed up against Ian’s foot. As if realizing what it may be touching, the foot pushed down just a bit, in an attempt to be a loving kind of touch.

“Yeah, dad,” Barley whispered. “That’s Ian.”

Ian was still as the moment overcame him. His first moment with his dad. “Hi… dad.” He hesitated at first, but then placed his hand on the top of the foot.

The emotions were in a silent awe, as behind them they could hear Dad Island being the liveliest it’s ever been. “No way,” Joy whispered.

Dad stepped back, stumbling for a moment as he tripped on a pen, before getting his bearings back.

Fear’s smile faded, as reality finally returned to him. “No… no, this isn’t right.” He took the controls as the emotions spoke out in confusion.

After enjoying his first moment with Dad, or half of him, Ian stepped back into the reality of the situation. “Oh, no. I messed this whole thing up. Dad’s going to be legs forever.”

“No, not forever,” Barley pointed out. “The spell only lasts for one day. Once the sun sets tomorrow he’ll be gone, and we won’t bring him back again.”

Ian looked out the window at the setting sun, then down at his digital watch. “Okay, twenty four hours. That doesn’t give us much time.”

“No time at all,” Fear thought aloud as he looked down at his own digital watch. “What are we supposed to do with a pair of legs for twenty four hours?”

“Oh! I know!” Joy perked up before taking control.

“We’ll just have to do the spell again,” Ian said.

“What??” the other emotions exclaimed.

“You mean you’ll have to,” Barley clarified. “A person can only do magic if they have the gift, and my brother has the magic gift!!” he exclaimed.

“Okay, this is getting nuts!” Fear said, grappling for the controls. He tried to grab Joy by the shoulder and push him away, but this time Joy pushed back, causing Fear to momentarily pause in shock, before trying again to push for control.

“But I couldn’t finish the spell,” Ian argued.

“Well, you’re going to have plenty of time to practice, cause we’re going to have to find another Phoenix gem,” Barley commented, noticing the remains of the shattered gem on the wizard staff. Almost immediately, Barley’s face lit up with an idea and he ran downstairs.

Joy and Fear finally gave up their shoving match and faced each other. “What is your problem?” Joy exclaimed.

Fear paused a moment, still shocked that Joy talked back to him, before getting back to the subject. “’We’ll have to do the spell again?’”

“Well, yeah,” Joy shrugged. “What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that about two minutes ago magic was just some hokum from Barley’s silly little games,” Fear explained, “and now Ian just used an ancient stick and resurrected dad’s pants!”

“And your point is…?” Joy asked.

Fear gasped. “What? Seriously? I mean, isn’t this a lot to take in?”

“That is a lot,” Sadness spoke up.

“See?” Fear pointed out. “Sadness agrees with me.”

“I think we should do the spell again,” Sadness added.

Fear took a double take towards Sadness. “You too?”

“I thought I’d never say this ever again,” Disgust added in his thoughts, “but Fear’s right. I don’t want Ian messing with nerdy magic mumbo jumbo.”

“But he is a nerd,” Joy clarified.

“Ian’s not going to become a table top role playing geek!” Anger snapped.

“He’s not playing a game!” Joy argued. “Guys, you saw it! You saw the sparkly stuff, you saw dad’s legs! Magic is real!”

“And dangerous!” Fear argued back.

“But if there’s a chance to bring dad back, even for one day,” Joy asked, “shouldn’t we try it?”

Fear, Anger and Disgust were about to rebut, but paused at that very question. They looked at each other, then at Dad Island, then up at the screen, where they could see Ian gently tapping on Dad’s foot, almost as if he was checking if he was really there.

“Guys,” Joy told them all, “we could finally give Ian memories of his dad.”

Before the emotions could discuss this any further, the bedroom door flung wide open as Barley ran inside, slamming a box of Quests of Yore cards onto the desk. “We’ll start where all quests begin, the Manticore’s Tavern.” He plucked a few selected cards from the box and presented them to Ian. Ian stood up and took the cards with a puzzled look. “The place is run by a fearless adventurer. She can show us where to find any gem, talisman, totem…”

“This again?” Anger snapped, with Disgust flipping a few switches on the controls.

“Barley, this is for a game,” Ian explained.

“Based on real life,” Barley explained right back.

“How do you know this place is still there?” Ian asked.

“It’s there.” Barley dumped out the box and dug through the pile of cards for the exact one. “My years of training have prepared me for this very moment, and this is the only way we are going to find a Phoenix gem,” he declared, holding up the Phoenix gem card.

“There’s no way we’re trusting this guy,” Disgust said.

“But he’s the expert,” Joy told Disgust.

“The expert in a geeky game,” Disgust clarified.

“Based on real life,” Joy clarified right back.

“What part of this is real life, Joy?” Anger snapped. “What part?”

“Well, we know the magic is real. Right, Fear? Fear?” Joy looked around, finding Fear’s not at the console. She turned around to see Fear pacing back and forth across the floor, hands squeezing his sides and mumbling nervously to himself. His eyes were wide, as he couldn’t believe this is happening. “Fear!”

“Ah!” Fear jumped, then tried to collect himself. “Oh, heh, uh, sorry. I was just thinking…”

“… Thinking we should do this?” Joy asked with an encouraging, trusting smile.

Fear was unsure of anything anymore. All he could do was glance at the emotions, then Ian, then back at Joy, then at Dad Island, then at Ian, then back at Joy. Taking a deep breath, followed by a gulp, Fear approached the console, pleaded under his breath, “please don’t let me regret this…” the jumped a mile as he heard Dad Island whir to life.

“Whatever it takes,” Ian decided, “I am going to meet my dad.”

“Did you hear that dad?” Barley boasted triumphantly. “We’re going on a quest!”

\-----

Before they knew it, Ian was in the back of the van with Dad, Barley was at the wheel driving down the interstate through the city. Fear and Sadness were at the controls, Disgust watching the screen next to an idea bulb she just recently inserted into the console.

“Guys! Guys! Look!” Joy raced up to the other emotions, cradling a purple memory orb. “It’s Ian’s first memory of dad!”

Fear peered into the ball as it played an image of Ian reacting to first seeing the pair of sentient legs. “Uhh… I don’t think it counts until we get all of dad back.”

“Oh, all right,” Joy replied with a playful huff before placing the memory back on the short term shelves.

As Sadness finished returning a memory of Ian’s math award up the recall tube, Fear took the controls to help Ian finish another list of his.

“What are you two chatty charlies up to back there?” Barley asked Ian.

Ian picked up a mannequin top made out of pieces of clothing and stuffing. “Well, I felt weird talking to dad without a top half so… ta-da.” Ian placed the mannequin top on top of the bottom half of Dad.

“That’s great!” Barley exclaimed. “Dad, you look just the way I remember you.”

Disgust smirked as he removed the idea bulb from the console. “Told you it was a good idea.”

“Don’t worry dad, soon we’ll have you all back together, and I’ll introduce you to Guinevere,” Barley said, implying his van. “Rebuilt this old girl myself, from the lug nuts to the air conditioning.” With one flick of a switch, the inside of the van was hit hard with a blast of cold air.

Fear shrieked and grappled at the controls. “Ian! Need! Seat belt!”

Ian managed to fight through the gust and turn off the overpowering A/C unit. “Showing dad your van? That’s your whole list?” Ian asked as he sat down in the passenger seat.

“What list?” Barley asked, before noticing a small notebook in Ian’s hand. “What’s that?”

“Oh, it’s just a list of things I want to do with dad,” Ian explained. “You know, play catch, take a walk, driving lesson, share my whole life story with him…”

Fear nodded, reading over every single one that he wrote on his exact copy of Ian’s list in his notebook. Play catch. Take a walk. Laugh together. Heart to heart. Driving Lesson. Share my life story with him.

“That’s good,” Barley nodded with a smile, before his smile lit up with excitement. “Oh, but before you cast dad’s spell again, you need to practice your magic.”

Ian caught the book Barley casually tossed at him. The Quests of Yore game book. “This is for a game.”

“Everything in Quests of Yore is historically accurate, even the spells. So,” Barley boldly presented Ian with the wizard staff, “Start practicing, young sorcerer.”

Fear froze, looking up at the staff, overpowered with the overbearing weight that this is real, and this is really happening. “Are we really going to do this?” he asked.

Anger and Disgust were on one side, arms crossed, not liking the game book is involved. Sadness on the other, standing next to Fear, placing his hand on Fear’s. Joy placed his hand on Fear’s shoulder, giving him a confident, assuring smile.

Trying to ignore the feeling that he’s already regretting this, Fear closed his eyes, and pressed a button.

“Well, dad,” Ian said, in a less confident tone, as he cracked opened the book. “Let’s practice some magic.”


	4. Risky Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian and his emotions begin their quest at the Manticore's Tavern.

Fear was eyeing a purple orb that just rolled into short term memory, inside was the image of the page from the Quests of Yore book displaying how to cast a levitation spell. Mumbling under his breath as he read it to himself, Fear quickly began jotting down the important notes on the page, ignoring what looked like board game information such as dice rolls.

Sadness looked over his shoulder at what Fear was doing. “I don’t know why you’re making notes for yourself. We can just recall this memory if we want Ian to remember it.”

“I just want to be safe,” Fear stated, clicking the pen closed before slipping it in his back pocket with his notebook. “We need to be sure Ian can recall it quickly.”

“Recall what?” Anger commented, sitting on the couch with his arms crossed. “Some stupid page from a game manual?”

“Yeah, this is ridiculous and pointless,” Disgust added, sitting on the couch as well, both his arms and legs crossed.

“Look, I think this is crazy too, but if Ian wants to try it,” Fear told them, pointing to the Islands of Personality, “then we should give it a chance.” Fear cleared his throat and straightened his posture before walking up to Joy at the console. “How’s Ian doing, Joy?”

“Oh, great! Just great!” Joy chimed.

Fear smiled. “Oh, so he figured out the spell?”

“Uh… not yet,” Joy replied, his smile wavering.

Fear’s face fell. “Hm, let me give it a try.” Fear stepped in, then checked his notes real quick. “Says here to cast the spell Ian has to aimeth- aimeth?” Fear shook his head and tried to ignore the olde style talk. “Aim the staff at the target and say ‘Aloft Elevar.’” Fear looked up puzzled. “That- that didn’t… that sounds right, right?” Joy nodded, Sadness shrugged, while Fear took the controls.

Ian was in the passenger swivel chair, facing towards the back of the van. He had his staff in both hands, pointing it towards an empty soda can lying on the floor of the van. “Aloft Elevar… Aloft Elevar…” Ian repeated the phrase a few more times, but nothing happened. No reaction from the staff or the soda can. 

Fear tried the command a few more times, but after a few more failures, he just dropped his head and sighed.

“Maybe he’s saying it wrong,” Disgust teased sarcastically.

“Or… maybe Ian can try another spell,” Joy suggested.

Fear nodded, “Yeah… yeah,” Fear convinced himself.

Ian sighed in defeat. “I can’t get this spell to work. Maybe I should try something else, like…” Ian flipped further into the guide book. “… Arcane Lightning?”

Barley laughed. “Yeah, like a level one mage can master the hardest spell in the enchanter’s guidebook.” Barley casually flipped back to the levitation spell. “Let’s stay on the easy ones.”

“But, it’s not working,” Ian replied. “Am I saying it right?”

“You did,” Barley explained. “What you need is to speak from your Heart’s Fire.”

“His wha?” Joy asked aloud, with the emotions just as dumbfounded.

“My what?” Ian asked.

“Your Heart’s Fire,” Barley explained boldly. “With passion, with courage. Don’t hold back.”

Fear slowly went wide eyed as his fingers slid off the controls. “uhhhhh…..” Passion? Courage? How is he supposed to be any of those things?

“Passion. Courage. Oh! Anger!” Joy exclaimed.

Anger waved his arms. “Oh no no no. You’re not going to rope me into this crud.”

Fear sighed, both in relief and because he was out of ideas. “Come on, Anger. For Ian.”

After a brief pause and glare, Anger hopped off the couch and stormed up to the console. He placed his thick red palms on the levers and pushed them forward.

“Aloft elevar!” Ian exclaimed, trying to focus on being confident.

“No.” Barley shouted with dramatic boldness. “Aloft elevar!”

“Aloft elevar!” Ian shouted.

“Don’t hold back!” Barley instructed.

“Aloft elevar!”

“Aloft elevar!”

Fear kept snapping his head from the screen to Anger and back again, back and forth back and forth. Anger was growing more frustrated, pushing the lever further and harder. Ian was growing more frustrated, more angry, the more he tried, the more Anger pushed him. Anger began to give that low growl he gives before he blows up in rage, causing that shivering feeling to rise up Fear’s spine.

“Heart’s fire!” Barley exclaimed.

“Stop saying Heart’s Fire!!” Ian threw off his seat belt and stormed across the back of the van. He slumped onto the bench, slipping his hands under his arms.

Meanwhile, Fear was hunched over the console with his arms out, and Anger shoved onto the floor. All Fear could do was stare blankly and worried at the other emotions, as the emotions stared right back. Disgust eventually sighed and slapped his hand to his forehead.  
A moment of silence lingered through the van before Barley turned and told Ian softly and encouragingly, “Hey, it was a nice try.”  
Ian just slumped further, looking down at his feet, ashamed of himself.

“Fear,” Joy finally spoke up, gently. “What was that?”

Fear tried to stand up and collect himself. “Uh, what was what?”

“You pushed Anger,” Sadness replied.

“We all saw it,” Disgust snapped.

Anger jumped back into his feet and stormed up to Fear, pointing his stubby finger in Fear’s face. “What has gotten into you??”  
Fear held up his hands and backed away in fright. “Ah, me, I dunno-“

The emotions were interrupted by Barley’s booming voice echoing through headquarters. “Ah ha, brace yourselves, Lightfoot men.”  
“We’ll discuss it later,” Joy said quickly. “To the console.”

“Yeah! The console!” Fear exclaimed, just glad the focus was off of him. He stood at the console with the others, standing close to Joy and away from Anger and Disgust with their judgmental stares.

The van pulled up to an old tavern, looking decrepit and unwelcoming as it was cast in the shadows of the night. The building looked towering, almost threatening, nearly engulfing in the Lightfoot brother’s presence.

Barley parked the van by the entrance. “The Manticore’s Tavern,” he proclaimed.

Fear swallowed his fears, but they just rolled right back up his throat.

“Uh, guys?” Sadness realized, pointing to Dad in the back of the van. “How are we going to keep an eye on Dad? He can’t see where we’re going.”

“Whatever we do, it can’t be conspicuous,” Disgust suggested.

The emotions paused for a brief second in thought, but it was Joy who caught sight of Blazey’s retractable leash in a corner of the van. Immediately, Joy ran off, snagged an idea bulb off a shelf, and ran back.

Ian ended up walking up the dirt path towards the tavern, retractable leash in hand, with the leash clipped to Dad’s belt. “Come on, Dad. This way,” Ian whispered.

Disgust eyed the screen in flat disbelief. “Great idea, Joy,” he said sarcastically. “Not conspicuous at all.”

“Thanks,” Joy brimmed with happiness.

Barley led the way up to the mighty oaken doors of the tavern. “Oaky, first, let me do the talking. Second, you must give the Manticore the respect she deserves. Or, third, she won’t give us a map to the Pheonix gem.”

“A map?” Ian asked. “I thought she had the Pheonix gem.”

“Oh, you’re cute,” Barley chuckled. “See dad, he’s a smart kid, he just doesn’t know how quests work.”

Joy covered his mouth and giggled at Barley’s comment, while the other emotions were just growing more aggravated with him.

“Well, is there anything else I should know about?” Ian asked.

To which Barley replied, “Uh, no?” before opening the doors.

The tavern inside looked like the complete opposite of its threatening, foreboding outside. Every single inch was brightly lit and welcoming. Families filled the clean booths, enjoying modern day eats like burgers and nachos. At a large table was a group enjoying a birthday cake for a happy little five year old.

Even Joy dropped his hands and groaned at the sight. “Are you kidding me?”

“I know,” Fear muttered, strictly dumbfounded.

“Exactly!” Joy pointed to the birthday party. “You can’t have birthday cake without ice cream!”

The emotions just turned their heads to Joy in disbelief.

All the while, Ian was turning his head to Barley in disbelief. Barley glanced back and explained with a shrug, “Okay, so the place has changed over the years. But the Manticore is the real deal.”

Ian followed Barley into the tavern, or, restaurant, Dad following behind as he was tugged by the leash. Ian looked around, eyeing some more modern appeals such as arcade games, appetizers and karaoke. All the while, he was getting this weird feeling creeping up from the back of his head.

The emotions stared at this screen, getting this weird vibe from the place. “Uh, anyone notice this place looks… familiar?” Fear thought aloud.

“Yeah, I’m getting that feeling too,” Disgust mused.

“Have we been here before?” Sadness asked.

“I don’t think so,” Anger shrugged.

“Hm, weird,” Joy hummed before keying a few buttons on the console. “Let me see if I can locate some memories…”

Barley caught sight of a hostess who wasn’t busy with a customer. “Excuse me, madam,” he proclaimed in a low, serious voice, accented with his acting. “I request presence, with the Manticore.”

“But of course, my lord!” The waitress blew into a toy horn she unsheathed from her waitressing apron. “Oh, Manticore!” she called out in a sing song tone.

A big, puffy, happy, cartoony mascot of a Manticore looking character costume hopped out from the employee entrance into the dining room. The mascot was acting silly and peppy, but Ian was stepping back, but not sure why this thing was giving him the creeps.

The other emotions jumped back from the console in fright as Joy’s eyes lit up in realization. “Oh, I remember now!” she proclaimed as she typed in a command, calling a repressed memory. A memory orb dropped from the recall tube and into the projector, the memory was faded a darkened gray, but still had a glint of purple shining through it. Onscreen, the memory played a grayscale colored memory of a two year old Ian crying his frightened little heart out while clinging to his mom. It appeared to be an old, forgotten memory Ian’s toddler years, of Laurel, Barley and Ian in a booth at the same Tavern, with Laurel apologizing to the staff while trying to calm down the traumatized Ian, still frightened of the Manticore mascot who was trying his best to cheer up the child, but unknowingly making things worse.

Fear screamed the loudest of all the other emotions as he dove for the console, smacking the buttons to return the memory from where it came. The memory was vaccumed back up into the tube, and now onscreen was the current sight of the mascot attempting to happily hug Ian, who was trying his best to scramble away. Disgust and Anger took controls, trying to help Ian escape.

Fear glared at Joy, the happy emotion could only sheepishly smile with his hands innocently behind his back. “Never. Recall that. Again.” Fear scowled. “Ever.”

“No, no, the real Manticore,” Barley clarified to the waitress, once he helped Ian become freed from the mascot. “You know, the famous warrior?”

The waitress dropped her acting façade and spoke in her normal tone. “Oh, you mean Corey? She’s over there,” motioning to the kitchen.  
That very second, the kitchen doors swung open. Busting through was a large, powerful beast, with the make of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the mighty wings much like a dragon. The beast herself, however, had a personality tamed down to an underpaid restaurant manager remaining calm during a panic attack brought upon by a busy dinner rush. “I need help!” she called out to any coworkers within earshot. “These griffin nuggets were supposed to go out minutes ago!”

The emotions just stared unimpressed at the Manticore, watching the coworkers take each plate off of her hands.

“That’s the Manticore?” Ian asked, equally unimpressed.

Barley was still impressed, still seeing the legendary adventurer hidden behind her ponytailed mane and back paws stuffed inside high heeled shoes. He knelt down in great humility, removing his beanie in her presence. “Oh great and powerful Manticore…”

The Manticore nearly tripped over Barley and stepped back in surprise. “Woah, sir, you’re right in the hot zone.”

Barley raised his head. “Manticore,” he humbly begged. “We need a map to the Phoenix gem.”

“Oh, well then you’ve come to the right tavern,” the Manticore smiled, making her way to the hostess podium. “I have the exact parchment you’ve been searching for. Behold!” she proclaimed, showing them a pristine piece of paper.

The emotions leaned in, unsure of what they’re seeing is real. “You have got to be kidding me,” Disgust said sourly.

“Oh, that’s a children’s menu,” Ian commented, eyeing the placemat.

“Ain’t it cute? They’re based off my old maps,” the Manticore continued, tossing a tiny box at the brothers. “Uh, the Manticore gives you fellow warriors a hero’s blessing, and here’s some crayons.”

“Uhm, that’s very funny, miss Manticore,” Barley asked, “but do you have the real map?”

Distracted with more orders, the Manticore offhandedly replied, “Oh, yeah, it’s over there.”

The Lightfoot brothers looked over to a wall displaying the remaining relics belonging to the Manticore. Displayed dead center was a centuries old map. “Perfect!” Barley ran up and grabbed the map.

The Manticore immediately grabbed it back. “Woah woah woah, you guys can’t take this.”

“I’m afraid we have to.” Barley took off the fake top half, revealing the lower living half of their dad to the Manticore.

The Manticore gasped. “What is that?”

“That is our dad,” Ian explained, quickly placing the disguise back on. “We have to meet him, but-“

“But, we need a Phoenix gem,” Barley finished for Ian.

“No! My days of sending adventurers on quests are done!” Manticore argued.

Barley was shocked. “What? Why?”

“Because, they’re dangerous,” the Manticore replied.

“Corey?” a hostess called out to the Manticore. “The karaoke machine is broken again.”

The Manticore sighed in frustration. “I’m sorry, but you two are not getting this map,” she quietly told the brothers before busying herself with the karaoke machine.

Fear turned to Barley, quietly thinking what to do, then back to the Manticore, still in possession of the map.

“Ugh, this is a complete waste of time,” Disgust sighed.

“Time we don’t have,” Fear added, placing his hands under his arms.

“Okay, think think think,” Joy thought aloud, tapping the side of his head with his fingers. “How would we get the map if we were adventurers?”

“But we’re not,” Sadness corrected.

“But if we were.” Joy hummed in thought before she perked up with an idea. “Aha! Remember the Heart’s Fire thing? Passion? Courage? We just need to be bold.”

“But we’re not,” Fear replied.

“But we can be,” Joy corrected.

“But I- I mean, we’re not,” Fear reiterated.

“Think about it,” Joy encouraged them. “If wizards are bold, and dad was bold, maybe Ian can be bold. Anger’s pretty bold, let him try.”  
Fear shook his head. “No no no. That ended in a disaster, remember?”

Anger glared at Fear, clenching his fists. “What did you say…?”

Fear squeezed his sides before letting his hands slip out from under his arms. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. “Okay… be bold… like dad… just… be bold…” Fear placed his shaking hands on the console.

Ian gathered up what little courage he had and quietly approached the Manticore. “Miss Manticore… ma’am?”

“Look, kid,” the Manticore said, messing with the karaoke machine, “this is not a good time.”

“It’s just,” Ian tried to continue, “I’ve never met my dad, and-“

“Look, I’m sorry about your dad,” she interrupted, beginning to grow frustrated, “but if you get hurt on my quest, guess who gets sued and loses her tavern? I can’t take that kind of risk. Now if you excuse me, I have important things to do.” The Manticore went to busying herself by checking the microphone.

While Fear tried to help Ian, and failing, Anger stood there, his glaring gaze snapping between Fear and the Manticore. The more the futile argument continued, the more Anger grew madder, hotter, stewing in his own rage at what Fear dared to say about him.

“Please,” Ian practically begged. “We need that map.”

The Manticore practically slapped Ian’s hand away as she pulled the map away. “No. I am not giving you this map. I am done talking.”

“That’s it!” Anger punched Fear in the back, sending him flying and slamming against a wall. Anger grabbed the levers and shoved them forward with all his might. He screamed at the top of his lungs, his fuming head erupted into roaring flames, his blue curls flickering and dancing within the fire, thankfully immune to the heat and burn.

“Well… well I’m not!” Ian snapped, planting his wizard staff into the ground.

“Woah, wait a minute,” Barley was only able to say, surprised to see Ian like this, especially to such beasts as the Manticore, or any beast for that matter.

“You said you can’t risk losing this tavern!” Ian continued on his anger fueled rant. He turn noticed an aged, framed painting of the Manticore back in her prime and pointed straight at it. “Look at that Manticore! She looked like she lived to take risks!”

“That Manticore didn’t have investors to look out for!” the Manticore shouted back. “She didn’t have payroll! She could just fly out the door whenever she wished and slay a magma beast!”

Fear was just collecting himself from being thrown against the wall. He shook the daze out of his head with a grumble, looking up at Joy and Sadness, checking if he was okay. “Ian… Ian. Anger!” Fear raced over to the console. “Anger, what did you do?”

“My job!” Anger shouted, the flames from his head beginning to subside, along with his hair folding back into barely controlled curls.

Fear shivered with fright, realizing what those flames meant. “Oh no, you got Ian mad at the Manticore?”

“So? She’s nothing!” Anger yelled. “She’s a pushover! A complete and utter pussycat!”

Joy tried to pull Anger away. “Okay everyone, let’s just calm down before we make Ian say something we’ll regret.”

“Get off of me!!” Anger shouted at Joy.

The Manticore continued her rant. “So what if this place isn’t as adventurous as it used to be? So it isn’t filled with a band of motley horde raring to risk life and limb for a mere taste of excitement? But so what? Who says you have to take risks in life to have an adventure?”

Through the struggles and arguing, Fear managed to wrangle control of the console again. But before he could even touch it, he froze as the Manticore was asking that very question straight at Ian. He was at a loss, not sure what to say to that. He looked around in a panic, before catching sight of something barely behind the Manticore’s wing. Nervously, he placed a trembling finger on a tiny button.

Barley able to raise a finger, Ian replied in quiet fear, “Apparently… you did?”

The Manticore turned to where the elf boy’s slender finger was pointing. Behind her, above the framed, proud painting of her fierce, younger self, garbed in strong armor, was a quote etched into a gold plaque: You must take risks in life to have an adventure – The Manticore.

It as if a hard stone club of reality hit the Manticore upside the head. “What have I done?”

“Uh, but it’s not too late,” Ian quickly tried to say. “If you can give us the map-“

The Manticore couldn’t hear Ian over the existential spiral she was stuck in. She looked over her old tavern, buried in so much fluff and gawdiness that it was a foreign building to her now. “This place used to be dangerous…. And wild… I used to be dangerous and wild…” A small growl rose from her throat, turning her gaze to the mascot that just happened to be walking by that very moment. The beast pounced on the innocent soul in the costume, pinning him to the ground and tearing the mascot’s head off in a blind rage. The patrons gasped, the employees in shock, Barley pulled Ian away.

“I’ve been living a lie!” the Manticore roared. “What have I become?” Upon instinct, the Manticore roared a mighty, beastly fuming roar, as flames shot out of her mighty maw burning the plush costume’s head to a crisp.

“Ohh, no,” Barley gasped.

“Guys,” Fear whimpered. “That’s not a pussycat.”

The Manticore threw the smoldering head aside, letting it land wherever, which just happened to be a random table. “Everybody out!” she demanded to the entire building! This place is closed for remodeling!” she unsheathed her sharp claws and gave a loud, angry roar that echoed through the wooden rafters.

The patrons and employees scattered, evacuating the building for their dear lives as the Manticore continued her rampage. The Lighfoot brothers grabbed their dad and hid under a table for safety, just as they realized the building was quickly building into a blaze as the burning mascot head started a fire. As the Manticore destroyed a plastered wall and pounced away, Ian caught sight of the map falling from her grasp… and immediately burning from the intense heat.

“No!!” Fear pushed the levers forward.

Ian raced towards the map and tried to snuff out the flame, but it quickly ate up the parchment and turned it to ashes fluttering from his fingertips. “No…”

“We gotta go!” Barley shouted as he grabbed Ian and Dad, helping the three raced to the exit before the fire trapped them inside.

Fear was in a flurry over the controls, helping Ian run as fast as he can out of the dangerous inferno. He tried to focus through the flames and ignore the sound of the emotions yelling, directing him where to go.

But one voice shattered his concentration. “Dad!!” Joy shouted, pointing out that the fake torso the brothers were carrying didn’t have legs.

“What??” Fear pulled the levers back. “Where did he go??”

“There!” Disgust pointed to a pair of legs, trying to climb to his feet after recently falling.

Before Fear could catch his breath, he heard a loud fiery crack of wood from the ceiling above. The emotions gasped as the saw a rafter above dad bend sharply downward. Just as it collapsed, Fear dove onto the console, slamming his hands down on a few precise keys.

“Aloft elevar!!” Ian shouted, aiming the wizard staff at the falling debris. Within an instant, the flaming beam froze, encased in a glistening aura.

The emotions were in a silent awe as the console Fear was lying atop of was glowing in a mystical beaming light, much similar to the light keeping the beam above the ground. Joy saw as Fear began to struggle, his arms shaking weakly. “No no no, hold, hold it!! You’re doing it, Fear!! You can do this!!”

Barley ran quickly and grabbed Dad, immediately turning back and racing to the exit. Just as soon as the area was clear, Ian pulled the staff back, letting the beam fall as he raced out of the building. The Lightfoot brothers disappeared into the chaotic crowd of confusion and panic, climbed into the van after helping Dad inside, and sped off into the night.

Fear was slumped over onto his knees, trying to catch his breath and his thoughts. Joy and Disgust dragged Fear’s limp body across the floor and propped him onto the couch. As his bearings slowly returned, Fear looked up, glancing from one emotion to the other. “What… did I…” he panted. “… what I do?”

“You did it!!” Joy cheered, leaping onto Fear and clutching him into a big congratulatory hug.

Fear was still kind of dazed as he held onto Joy. “What did I do?”

“You did the levitation thing!” Disgust clarified. “The aloft spell! The beam- it was just floating in midair! And you- and the console! I never seen it light up like that before!”

“I couldn’t believe it worked!” Anger shouted in awe, smiling at Disgust, still in a bit of disbelief.

Disgust smiled back, no longer doubting what just happened. “I know! I couldn’t believe it either!”

It was as if the cogs in Fear’s head were finally turning. “I… helped Ian?”

“You did more than help!” Joy exclaimed straight into Fear’s face. “You had Ian do the levitation spell! Ian’s a wizard, Fear! Our Ian is a wizard!” Joy ran off, going to hug Anger and Disgust in a group hug, before racing over to Sadness at the console.

A small smile emerged from Fear’s face, trembling at first, but calming as he finally rose to his feet. He walked back to the console, taking Sadness’s spot as Joy spun the melancholy emotion into a big hug. As the others calmed down from their celebrating, Fear placed his hands on the console, looking up at Ian, brimming with pride.

Barley was in the driver’s seat, fueled with overwhelming excitement from what he just saw. “And that beam was just floating there! My brother is a wizard!!”

Ian was hunkered down in the back of the van, finally collecting himself. “I can’t believe that worked,” he gasped in amazement.

“Oh, you are going to nail Dad’s spell now!” Barley told Ian, brimming with pride for his little brother.

Fear’s face suddenly fell, his hands beginning to grasp control of the console. “No no no, this isn’t right.”

“What are you talking about?” Joy asked Fear, still high off her own excitement. “Ian did the thing!”

“But the map!” Fear snapped back in worry before looking back at the controls.

Joy gasped. “Oh no, the map.”

“It burned up in the fire,” Sadness cried.

“Did anyone get a good look at the map?” Disgust asked. “Did anybody make a memory of it?”

“No,” Sadness sniffled, as the other emotions shook their heads.

Ian sat down in the passenger seat. “But, we don’t have a map.”

Barley reached into his denim vest as he replied, “But we do have this. Behold!” Barley pulled a crayon colored kids placemat out from his vest.

The emotions flatly stared at the screen. “By Faldar’s horn,” Disgust groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead.

“I could strangle him right now!” Anger snapped.

“Look, on a quest, you have to use what you got,” Barley explained to Ian, as Ian just glared at Barley, “and this is what we got. And, little Kayla here solved the puzzle.” Barley showed off the scrambled word puzzle at the bottom of the placemat, completed in crayon.

Ian took the placemat and explained sarcastically, “Well according to Kayla, we just have to go to… Raven’s Point.”

Disgust slowly pulled his fingers off the buttons as a realization washed over him. “Raven’s Point… that sounds familiar.”

Sadness was already at the bookshelves, pulling out an atlas of star maps and their adjacent maps to the earth on specific times of the year. His little blue fingers flipped through the various maps of the world before he found the one where New Mushroomton is located. He then turned the map to the other emotions and pointed to a mountain range north of New Mushroomton, specifically to a mountain named Raven’s Point.

“Now Ian needs a map,” Fear told the other emotions. “Get Ian to the glove box. There must be a map in the van’s glove box!” Before any of the emotions could take control, Fear was already taking over at the console.

Ian fished through the many, many parking tickets in the glove box before finding a map. On the south side of the map was New Mushroomton. To the north, the mountains, including, “Raven’s Point.”

“Yes,” Barley smiled, glad they got their destination. “We should be there by tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning?” Ian asked, worried about how little time they have.

“That gives us plenty of time with dad,” Barley assured his little brother.

Fear thought aloud, “I guess twelve hours is better than nothing.”

“That’s the spirit!” Joy told Fear.

Ian took another look at the map as Barley stopped at a red light. “Looks like the quickest way there is to take the expressway.”

“Uh, the expressway’s a little too obvious,” Barley suggested. “On a quest, the clear path isn’t always the right one.”

“What?” Ian asked.

“One Quests of Yore campaign, Shrub Rosehammer and I took the easy route, he ended up in the belly of a gelatinous cube,” Barley explained. “The reason why I didn’t suffer the same fate? I followed my gut. And my gut says we take an ancient trail called the Path of Peril.”

“But the expressway is faster,” Ian explained back.

“Maybe not in the long run,” Barley corrected.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Fear told the other emotions. “How is the quickest way longer?”

“Maybe it’s some ancient riddle?” Joy pondered.

“Why are we even thinking this?” Disgust said. “We’re seriously going to follow this nonsense?”

“Hey now,” Joy told Disgust. “A minute ago you believed in magic.”

“Yeah. Magic,” Disgust clarified. “Not this role playing griffin sh-“

Disgust was interrupted by the chime of Dad Island activating.

“I know you want this to be one of your adventure games,” Ian told Barley, “but what’s important is that we get as much time as possible with dad.”

It was at that moment, Barley felt a tapping near his foot. He looked down to see Dad’s foot finding its way on top of Barley’s before gently pushing down. Barley tried to smile, though his brother’s lack of faith in him was still sticking into his heart.

“So, maybe we should take the expressway,” Ian suggested once more. “Right?”

“Right.” Barley cleared his throat before adding, “But, if you end up inside a gelatinous cube, you are on your own.”

The emotions watched as the two brothers merged onto the expressway. Meanwhile, Joy leaned close to Fear so he could whisper, “Hey, great job helping Ian back there.”

Fear exhaled a laugh. “Heh. Thanks.”

“Anger did a good job too,” Joy added.

Fear paused a moment. “But, we didn’t get the map.”

“Nope,” Joy replied. “But Ian sure was bold.”

Joy leaned away, leaving Fear to think about that for a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You probably noticed a big error where at one point I called Ian "Fear." Instead of fixing it I kept it in cause, well, thanks to Fear, Ian is a Fear.


	5. Pit Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The van runs out of gas, and from there things get worse for Ian and his emotions.

They’ve only been back on the interstate for about ten or twenty minutes. Barley was at the wheel, Ian was in the back, attempting a conversation with a dad who was only half there. Like, literally half there. Even the emotions seemed to have moved on to take a break. Joy and Sadness were at the controls, while Disgust and Anger were looking over the maps in the atlas.

The only one not cool was Fear. He was hiding behind a couch, curled up with his knees in his chest. Things were going good so far for Ian, he didn’t want to jinx it by having the other emotions see how fragile the purple emotion was at the moment. But, he felt he had a reason to be. Who else was going to worry for Ian? They lost the map, they’re following a clue, granted it was a good clue. And they only have twenty two hours left before they lose Dad forever. Wait, is that right?

Fear looked down at his watch. Twenty hours left. And every second was counting down.

“Hey,” the melancholy voice of Sadness peeped from behind the couch.

“Ah!” Fear clasped his hands over his mouth, making him drop his notebook.

Curiously, Sadness crawled closer to the notebook. “What’s that?”

“Wha? N-n-no-nothing.” Fear fumbled to grab his notebook back, but only managed to grab his pen as Sadness picked up the notebook.  
The page Sadness saw was Fear’s copy of Ian’s list of things he wished to do with his dad. However, the first two on the list, ‘play catch’ and ‘take a walk,’ they were recently crossed out.

“Oh, that’s sad.” Sadness looked up at Fear with his glossy eyes. Sadness’s eyes seemed to have a shine to them when he’s about to tear up. “Are you afraid we won’t have enough time with dad?”

Fear’s lip quivered as he was about to lie, but it hurt too much to try. Instead, he tucked his hands under his arms and leaned forward into his knees, as if he was curling into a ball. “Yes?” he whimpered.

Sadness placed a gentle hand on Fear’s knee. “It’s okay.”

Fear began to rock a little in his seat. “It’s really not,” his quiet voice cracked.

Sadness nodded. He stood up from behind the couch and approached the console.

Fear popped up from his hiding place, trying to bury his worries under his confusion of what Sadness is up to. “What are you doing?”  
On screen, Ian’s vision was looking down at the list in his notebook. His list, however, had nothing crossed out… yet. Sadness placed his hand on a button or two, and Ian crossed out ‘play catch’ and ‘take a walk’ off his list.

In a frenzy, Fear darted straight over to Sadness. “Ah! Sadness, why did you do that? I-I only crossed them off because-“ Fear stopped mid rant when he heard Ian speak.

“I guess we won’t get to do everything, dad” Ian said quietly, a little melancholy in his tone. He took a brief pause, looking at the head of the dummy upper half of the disguise. He then looked down at the legs, the only real part of Dad he had at the moment. He softly moved his foot against one of the brown loafers. Dad’s other leg brushed his shin against Ian’s shin, the best they could do for a hug. “But that’s okay,” Ian told Dad, “I just want to meet you.”

The only sound in Headquarters was the nearby hum of Dad Island. Joy, Disgust and Anger were silently staring at Fear and Sadness, wonder what has gotten into Fear now. Fear’s eyes darted around frantically for a moment before he closed his eyes, let go of Sadness’s collar and collected himself.

“Oh, uhm, heh… good job, Sadness,” Fear told Sadness calmly.

“Uh… thanks?” Sadness replied.

Ian looked down at his watch to check the time. “Don’t worry, dad. We’ll have you all here and home in time to see…” Ian looked up as a realization struck him. “Oh no, mom. Barley, we won’t be back home in time to see mom.”

Barley’s face fell. “Oh. Well, dad, at least you won’t get to meet the new guy,” Barley commented, referring to Colt as he added on a little silly impression of him. “’So, you guys working hard or hardly working?’” Barley topped it off with a mimicking version of Colt’s braying laugh.

Ian laughed, then joined in on the fun. “’Barley, Barley, Barley. Every time there’s a problem I’ve got to deal with you.’”

“Is that your Colt?” Barley asked.

“Yeah,” Ian replied.

“You need to work on that,” Barley commented.

“No way,” Disgust crossed his arms, then grinned at Joy at the controls. “That was a very good Colt.”

“Why, thank you,” Joy playfully bowed.

The emotions stopped their momentary merriment when they heard a loud bang. “What was that?” Fear looked up at the screen and began to panic. “We’re slowing down. Why are we slowing down?”

“Breathe, breathe,” Joy attempted to calm Fear. “Barley’s on it.”

“No he’s not,” Anger said as he pointed at the screen. “He just pulled over.”

“What?? We stopped??” Fear dove onto the console.

“I thought you said you fixed the van,” Ian told Barley.

“Relax,” Barley replied. “Guinevere’s fine. Her stomach is just a little empty.”

“But it says we have a full tank.” Ian pointed to the gas gage on the dash.

Barley chuckled as he climbed out of the van. “No, that doesn’t work.”

Anger was about to storm up to the console, wanting to make Ian smack Barley for him, but Joy caught him by the back of his shirt.  
Ian hopped out of the van and joined Barley behind it, just as Barley opened up the back of the van and pulled out a gas can. “Few drops left,” Barley commented, shaking the empty can to verify what little gas was inside. Not enough to get the van revving, let alone moving.  
Fear gradually let go of the console and rested his hands under his arms. “This is terrible.”

“We’re stuck with no way to move,” Sadness sighed.

“There must be a gas station,” Joy told the others, trying to think positive. “We’re on a freeway exit. Every freeway exit has at least one gas station. Right?”

Fear whimpered, feeling like there was no way out. Their journey ended when it just got started, and they’re going to waste so much time that there won’t be any left to see Dad.

That’s when Joy caught sight of the wizard staff lying in the van. “What about magic?”

Fear lifted his head. “Huh?”

“Joy, there’s no such thing as a gas spell,” Disgust scoffed.

“We don’t know that,” Joy said, “but maybe Barley does. He has the book, he knows this stuff.”

“He got us stuck here!” Anger snapped.

Feeling at a loss, Fear glanced over to Sadness. Sadness caught his sideways glance, and gave a simple little nod. With a much smaller nod fueled by uncertainty, Fear took control.

Ian picked up the staff and held it close to his body. “Is there a magic way to get gas?”

Barley’s face lit up with the very thought of using magic. “I like the way you think, mage!” Barley immediately pulled out the Quests of Yore book and flipped to the exact page he was thinking of. “Growth Spell! We grow the can, and the gas inside grows with it.”

The emotions were left flabbergasted at the very idea. “I’d rather find a smelly gas station,” Disgust said flatly.

“That’s a very weird idea,” Ian commented.

“I know! I like it too!” Barley exclaimed.

“Fear, you do it,” Joy told Fear.

“What? Do what?” Fear stammered.

“Do the thing,” Joy repeated. “The magic thing.”

“Oh, uh… okay.” Fear tried to still his shaking hands before taking the controls.

Ian gripped the staff in one hand and took the guide book in the other. “Okay… heart’s fire… here we go…”

Barley stopped him. “Wait, it’s not that easy.”

The emotions groaned at Barley’s comment. “NO!!” Fear shrieked, as Joy exclaimed, “Are you kidding me?”

“A spell this advanced, you not only need your heart’s fire,” Barley explained, “you also need to follow a magic decree.”

“A magic what?” Ian asked, starting to show doubt in this guide book.

“A magic decree is an extra rule you must follow.” Barley points at the decree in the book. “It says here, to magnify an object, one must magnify their attention upon it. So, when performing the spell, you must not let anything distract you.”

Fear let his shivering fingers slip off the controls. “Focus…?”

“Yeah, focus,” Joy encouraged Fear. “Like in the tavern.”

“At the tavern? I was just panicking!” Fear replied.

“But you got it to work,” Disgust argued.

“I don’t know what I’m doing! I-I mean the spell!” Fear quickly clarified. “I don’t know how the spell works!”

Anger eyed Fear suspiciously at his own comment.

“Fear? Fear? Fear?” Joy repeated his name louder and louder until he got Fear’s attention. He looked Fear straight in the eye. “You can do this.”

Fear could still feel the shivering sensation of his anxieties creeping up his spine, but Joy’s soft, calm encouragement seemed to soothe them down. “Okay… okay, just… okay…”

“Okay, I can do this,” Ian whispered to himself, slowly gripping the staff nervously. Suddenly, Ian pulled his hands back. “Ow!”

Fear screamed in shock. Joy tried to keep him standing while watching the screen. “Wha?” Joy thought aloud.

“What happened?” Sadness asked, eyeing the screen.

“Uhm, what is that?” Disgust gasped sourly.

“What?” Barley called out concerned, concerned.

“Splinter,” Ian replied, shaking his stung hand, complete with a tiny snag of wood tucked into his palm.

Joy sighed, while Disgust gave an overactive gasp. “Not his soft powder blue palms,” the green emotion said dramatically

“Can’t we sand this thing down?” Ian asked, trying to grip the staff through the discomfort of his splinter.

Barley scoffed, “No! It’s an ancient staff with magic in ever fiber, you can’t just sand it down.” He glared.

Ian waved the thought off. “Alright, alright.”

“Okay, now that that’s done,” Joy commented, letting go of the shivering Fear, “time to do some magic.”

Fear was trembling from his head down to his legs. He’s trying to concentrate, like the decree said, but everything keeps distracting him before he could even try! Taking a deep exhale and forcing himself still, he reached for the controls. “Okay, let’s try this again…”

“Uhm…” Barley barely hummed.

“NOW WHAT??” Fear yelped, throwing his hands in the air as the tremors returned throughout his whole body.

Disgust groaned, “Let me try dealing with him.”

Ian gave a sideways glare towards Barley. “Problem?” 

Barley explained sheepishly. “It’s just… your stance…. Hold on.” Barley stepped up, grabbing onto Ian and helping him adjust his position. “Chin up. Elbows out. Feet apart. Back slightly arched. Okay, how’s that feel?” Barley asked as he stepped back.

Ian grimaced through the uncomfortableness. “Great.”

“Oh, wait, I-“

“Barley.”

“Okay, fine.”

“Finally,” Disgust sighed. He then noticed Barley stepping forward and adjusting Ian’s elbow. “Oh, no he did not just touch Ian.”  
Ian gave a warning stare as Barley finally stepped back for the last time.

Once he knew Barley was going to give Ian space, Disgust stepped back from the console. “He’s all yours Fear. Do the growth spell thingy.”

Fear had just finally calmed his breath as he approached the console, while ignoring the tingling of his nerves. He reached for the controls, caught his hands trembling, forced them still, and began inputting the correct commands.

Ian aimed the staff at the gas can. “Magnora gantuan!” With a flash, a bolt of magic shot out from the end of the staff and engulfed the gas can in a powerful aura. Ian was pushed back a bit, but tried to keep his balance. This spell was much more powerful, so much it felt like it was fighting Ian.

Fear gripped the lever tightly as he could feel it push back. He pressed a few more buttons on the glowing console, trying to maintain Ian’s balance. Fear grit his teeth, fighting through his fears, feeling the strength of the magic as he could almost feel it pulsate through the console.

“Don’t let the magic spook you,” Barley said.

“I’m trying!” Fear replied, as if Barley was talking to him.

“You’re doing fine, Fear,” Joy told Fear. “Just keep your focus on Ian.”

“Elbows,” Barley commented. “Elbows up.”

Ian tried to adjust his elbows, his eyes squinting as the magic grew brighter and more chaotic.

“No, no that’s too high,” Barley corrected.

“Trying to focus here,” Ian called out.

“Oh, right. Focus.”

While Ian tried to keep focused, Fear was beginning to lose control. He was scrambling over the brightly lit controls, eyes squinting to see, trying to think. “Chin up… or was it elbows out… feet apart… what was that about the back?”

“Forget the stance,” Disgust snapped. “Keep your focus on Ian.”

“Something’s not right,” Sadness thought aloud, watching the can begin to shrink instead of grow.

“Sadness, shush,” Joy whispered to Sadness.

“Focus…”

“Why is everybody talking all at once?” Fear exclaimed.

“Ignore it!” Anger shouted.

“Focus…” Barley told Ian.

“Barley! Ah, forget it!” Ian gave up and pulled the staff away, unaware of where the magic shot off to.

The emotions huddled around Fear lying on the floor, after watching the purple emotion collapse and slide off the console. “Fear!” Joy exclaimed. “Fear, what happened?”

Fear was curled up into a ball, knees against his chest, arms wrapped around himself, tightening his whole body into himself. He was a mess of whimpers and tremors before he finally began to make words… “… too much… it was too much… too much noise… too much light… too much to filter out…”

“I can’t believe this!” Anger spat.

Disgust grumbled, “I should have done the spell.”

“Oh, that’s sad,” Sadness sighed.

Joy knelt down to Fear’s level and helped him up onto his feet. Fear went from cradling his knees to tucking his hands under his arms. His nerve was wrapped tightly behind his head, his eyes were shut tight, not wanting to see the look on the other emotions’ faces. He failed to focus, he failed the spell. What else could go wrong?

Fear’s eyes then flung open when he heard a tiny voice. “Was that a mouse?”

“It worked!” Barley cheered. “The can is huge! The van is huge! And you’re…” Barley looked down at himself, realizing that everything was huge, because he’s now small. “Oh no…”

“Barley??” Fear shrieked as he ran up to the console. “What did I do to Barley??”

“You made him adorable!!” Joy squealed with delight while the other emotions were lost in shock.

Ian knelt down to get a good look at Barley, both because he was so small and because he couldn’t believe he was so small to begin with. His older brother, who’s usually six feet tall, is now barley below six inches! “What happened?”

“Looks like you shrunk me,” Barley replied.

“How did this happen?” Ian asked.

Barley explained, “Well, when you fail a spell, there are consequences.”

“I only failed because you wouldn’t let me focus,” Ian explained back.

“I was only trying to help,” Barley replied.

“I don’t need your help!” Ian exclaimed.

“Oh,” Barley argued back. “Alright. I won’t.”

Fear slowly backed away and hugged his sides tight, watching as Barley tapped his tiny hands on Dad’s feet to show he’s still there. “No… no no no no no this is worse! Now we have half a dad and barely a brother!” Panicking, Fear began pacing the floor, his steps quickening.

Joy raced up to catch Fear, keeping up with his pacing. “Hey, hey, hey. It’s not so bad. We can work with this. We’ve been through worse.”

“Worse?” Fear stopped pacing and looked straight at Joy. “We never half-ressurected our dad and shrunk our brother before, Joy! Ian didn’t have magic until about four hours ago! And- Shantar’s Talon, it’s only been four hours??” Fear sighed, exhausted and exasperated.  
Joy tried once again to spin this into a positive. “You’re… right, it has been a long four hours. Tell you what, why don’t you take a break, relax. Let the other emotions handle it.”

Fear was being led to sit down on the couch thanks to Joy’s encouraging words, but then stood back up. “Other emo- but Ian- but what if something worse-“

“If we need you, we’ll get you.” Joy pushed Fear down on the couch and pulled his feet up onto an ottoman. “Collect yourself, be calm. You don’t want to be a wreck when we finally see dad, do you?”

Fear sighed, “No.”

“Good!” Joy raced back to the console just as Disgust took over and led Ian to the van. Ian tucked the gas can under his arm, tossed the staff into the van and shut the door.

“Hey, where are you going?” Barley asked in his tiny voice.

“To find a gas station,” Ian replied, trying to hide his frustration at this whole situation.

“I’m coming too,” Barley said.

“Okay.” Ian knelt down and held his hand out for Barley to step into, making Joy give out an adorable giggle.

Barley held his hands up defiantly. “Hey, I don’t need your help.”

Ian held his hand up right back. “Fine with me.” Ian grabbed the retractable leash so dad can follow as they walked down the sidewalk.  
Fear was trying his best to slow his breath and maintain his focus, but he couldn’t help but watch as Ian led the way into the dark streets of the city. The only lights were the street lights, the age of their luminous glow merely highlighting the area in an eerie green hue. Every building seemed to be abandoned, even the roads and sidewalks seemed to be neglected and forgotten. How could the emotions keep focus with Ian in such a scary, foreign place, without as much as a plan?

Disgust scoffed as he heard that little voice again. Ian finally stopped to let tiny Barley catch up. “Wait up,” Barley gasped, catching his breath. “Tiny legs… can’t go that fast.”

“Can we just step on him?” Anger spat.

Disgust huffed, “I wish,” before pressing a button.

Ian knelt down and pinched the back of Barley’s shirt collar between his fingers and pulled him up in the air. Just as he was hoisted up, Barley’s pointed and exclaimed, “Look! A gas station!” Barley then added in arrogance, “Oh, right. I forgot. You don’t need my help.” Ian simply tucked the little Barley into his shirt pocket and headed towards the gas station.

Disgust and Anger chuckled to themselves. “Nice one, Joy,” Anger told Joy at the controls.

Fear straightened up in his seat as he watched the emotions. They do seem to have everything under control. They’re not doing what he would do, but… okay, he would have tucked Barley in Ian’s pocket.

Ian tugged Dad along by the leash, leading him across the lot of the gas station. “Barley’s with me, dad.”

“Yeah, dad, I’m fine,” Barley added. “The spell is supposed to wear off eventually. Do I look any bigger yet?”

Fear jumped and the emotions winced as they heard a loud growl from behind Ian. Half a dozen motorcycles, emblazoned in shining chrome and sparkling pink, drove in circles around the lot before parking by the gas station mini mart. Amazingly, the motorcycles looked like they had no riders at all. That is, until one hopped up on one of the bike’s seat. It was a little pixie, and the menacing biker appearance she had managed to eclipse her cutesy pink skin and gossamer wings. She gave a whistle, and out of nowhere, fifteen or so pixies popped out from each one of the motorcycles, also dressed in the garb and attitude of threatening bikers. On their way into the mini mart, one managed to scare off an innocent elf exiting the mart just for accidentally bumping into her.

Fear rose to his feet, worry building. “Oh no, we gotta go in there?”

“We can do this,” Joy nodded to Fear before turning back to focus on Ian.

Ian entered, just as a pixie exited while calling him a bean stalk. The tiny mart looked like chaos with the dozens of tiny pixies swarming the place. They weren’t flying, not many pixies fly these days. Instead they were climbing and running around like little animals, grabbing and feasting on snacks from the few small aisles, or drowning themselves in drinks from the soda station.

“Let’s get this over with.” Disgust pushed a lever forward.

Ian approached the counter, a large troll with little sleep or care was manning the till. “Ten on pump one please?” he sheepishly asked. He caught Barley hopping out of his shirt pocket and landing on a small stand of cheese curls, knocking the snack bags over. “What are you doing?” he whispered to Barley.

Barley was floundering inside the small pile of snack food. “Getting us some food.”

Ian placed Barley back in his pocket and pushed two small bags towards the cashier. “And two of these please,” he quietly added. Ian looked down as he felt a small hand tug on his flannel collar.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Barley whispered.

“Can it wait?” Ian asked back quietly.

Barley shrugged. “Hey it’s your pocket.”

Fear gave a yelp, but Disgust was quick with his “Ew!” followed by placing his hand flat on a button.

“Can we have the bathroom key, please?” Ian asked. The cashier handed Ian a small key hanging on an old license plate. Ian knelt down and placed Barley on the tile floor. “Be quick,” he told his brother, passing him the key.

Barley held the license plate above his head and scurried off. “I’m going, I’m going.”

Fear watched as Ian reached for his wallet in order to pay for the gas and snacks. He glanced back down at the emotions, they seemed to have things under control. He shrugged to himself, his body losing his tension as he took a calming breath.

Ian turned to find an angry pixie biker glaring at the head of the dad disguise. “You got a problem, shades?” the pixie growled into the mannequin’s sunglasses. “Answer me when I’m talking to you.”

Faster than he can scream, Fear bolted towards the console, shoved the emotions out of his way, and started slamming and smacking at the controls.

“Sorry! I don’t know where his head is right now.” Ian quickly escorted Dad out of the mini mart, whimpering to himself, “How could this night get any worse?”

Fear pulled away from the console, he held his hands up innocently as Anger, Disgust and Sadness stared at him.

“To be fair,” Joy spoke up, “that was a good time to have Fear.”


	6. Drive Crazy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As if a wild car chase isn't chaotic enough, something unexpected happens that makes the emotions question things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thankfully, this is the chapter in the fanfic where we go from less of a retelling of Onward to more of a story going on alongside Onward, which was the original plan. So I guess we got both a retelling and a (mostly) original idea, it's just more of the first in the first half and more of the latter in the second half.

Disgust was at the controls while Fear was looking over Disgust’s shoulder. Fear had one hand on Disgust’s shoulder and his eyes on the screen. Onscreen, Ian was knelt down by a gas pump, filling the small gas can with ten dollars worth of gasoline.

“Easy, easy,” Fear directed Disgust cautiously. “It’s only a small amount of gas, we can’t lose a drop.”

Disgust rolled his big emerald eyes. “I know, Fear.”

Fear closed his mouth and stepped back. He watched Disgust’s firm hands at the controls, but Ian’s hands appeared trembling. Is it cold outside? Is that social anxiety glitch happening again? Fear couldn’t help it as he stepped forward. “We don’t want to spill any on Ian.”

“I get it!” Disgust snapped, just as the pump stopped at the ten dollar cut off. “You’re scared! But guess what? I’m not!”

Joy immediately stepped between the two to break them up. “Hey, uh, has anyone seen Barley?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

“Oh no, Barley.” Fear looked down at his watch, over ten minutes has passed since Barley scurried off to the gas station bathroom. “Where could he be?”

“He is about this tiny,” Sadness thought aloud, thinking about unfortunate outcomes. “Maybe he fell in?”

“Good,” Anger said bluntly.

Fear froze when he heard that familiar little squeak of a pixie biker’s voice. He then shivered when he hear the little peep of Barley’s voice following. “Oh no, that’s worse than a toilet.”

Ian quickly finished up at the gas pump before he leaned out from behind it, still hiding for his own good. “Oh no,” Ian whispered, worried for their own good.

The pixie duster biker looked like the leader of the gang, which was the worst part of the gang Barley could tick off. “Who are you calling whimsical?” the leader snapped. “You have a lot of nerve!”

“Pixies used to fly around spreading delight,” Barley explained. “That’s a good thing.”

“Sprites can’t fly,” the leader argued.

“Not anymore,” Barley replied, “because your wings no longer work.”

The leader finished her sugary snack and angrily tossed the wrapper aside. “You calling me lazy?”

“No, not you,” Barley corrected. “Your ancestors.”

That wrong choice of words pushed the biker sprite close to the edge. “What did you say about my ancestors??”

Barley backed away, realizing that he didn’t say that right at all. “I wouldn’t say lazy…”

“RED ALERT!!” Fear dove onto the console.

With gas can and snacks under his arm and Dad’s leash in his free hand, Ian flew over to where they were standing outside the mini mart. Ian scooped Barley up in his free hand, too terrified to realize that he was carrying and shaking his big-little-brother like a rag doll. “Sorry! I’m sorry! He’s sorry too!” Ian spoke quickly. “Who needs wings? You got those cool bikes.”

Barley was finally held close enough to Ian that he could tug on Ian’s shirt collar. “I was just talking about history,” he pouted quietly, feeling that was quite a rude reaction.

Anger growled, stepping in. “That’s it. I’m taking over.” Fear gasped, but couldn’t stop Anger as he slammed his fist down on the console, lighting it up an angry red.

“Barley,” Ian argued at his little-big-brother, “I’m trying to take care of you and dad, and you are not helping.” Ian shoved his brother into his shirt pocket and yanked on the leash. “Dad, come on!”

Crash!

Ian tensed up and turned. Behind him was their disguised dad climbing to his feet after getting pulled into the line of pink motorcycles, which are now slanted and fallen onto the concrete. Ian was frozen with his eyes wide, all he could hear was the rapid pace of his heart beat and the fury of pixies banging on the mini mart door like an aggravated hive of hornets.

Anger slowly released his hands from the console, the emotions all wide eyed like deer in headlights. “That’s not good.”

“Hey!” The lead biker pointed straight up at Ian, completely enraged. “You’re dead!” she shouted, her threat magnified by one of her brutes shattering a beer bottle for a makeshift weapon.

Fear leaped for the controls and shoved Anger out of the way at the same time. Ian bolted straight out of there as fast as his long, slender legs could carry him, his brother and a gas can, all while tugging his leashed father behind him. “We’re dead! We’re dead! We’re dead! We’re dead!” Ian chanted in a panic.

“We’re dead! We’re dead! We’re dead! We’re dead!” Fear’s fingers were flying over the console, getting Ian to the van as quick as possible. Ian reached the passenger side door, then quickly moved to the back of the van when Fear realized in his panic that the van isn’t going anywhere without gas.

Barley managed to hop onto the door handle in that split second Ian’s hand was on the door. “Don’t worry. They won’t be able to lift those bikes.”

The emotions sighed in relief.

The sudden roar of motorcycle engines revved in the near distance. “Oh, they are strong,” Barley gasped in shock.

The emotions gasped in fear. “I hate it when he’s wrong!” Fear screamed to the heavens before scrambling at the controls again.  
“We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die!” Ian repeated as he emptied the gas into the van as quick as he could. He took a quick second to look over his shoulder, seeing how close the pixies were to them.

“The van’s locked!” Barley called out over the chaos, trying to push the van handle down with his currently little weight.

“What??” the emotions gasped.

“Where are the keys?” Ian raced to the passenger door to see the keys dangling in the ignition of the locked van. Ian looked over his shoulder, his fear intensifying as he caught sight of the bikers beginning to pull out of the gas station.

Fear pulled his hands back and paced back and forth at the console. “We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die!”

Barley noticed the passenger side window cracked open, by just an inch, but thankfully he was just small enough at the moment to squeeze through. He used all his might to jump up and grab the edge of the glass. “I got this!” he said as he pulled himself through the window and flopped down by the door lock.

“Yay, Barley!” Joy cheered.

“He needs to unlock the door,” Sadness pointed out.

“Here they come,” Disgust pointed to the screen at the bikers down the road and approaching fast.

“Come on, Barley!” Ian called out through the window at his little-big-brother.

With all his might, Barley pulled on the lock until it finally loosened. Barley was thrown back by his might, landing on the passenger seat, before he got up and hopped into the driver’s seat.

In a quick motion, Ian shoved dad, the gas can and the snacks into the back, sat down in the passenger seat, and slammed the door shut. “Now go! Go! Go! Go!”

“Why aren’t we moving?” Fear shouted. He then noticed Barley in the driver’s seat, blatantly too small to drive his van. Fear backed away, not liking where this is going. “No. No. No, no, no, no.”

“Oh no,” Ian whispered. “No, no, no, no, no.”

“You’re gonna have to!” Barley exclaimed.

“I can’t have to! I mean, we can’t do this!” Fear shouted in panic.

“Move over!” Anger punched Fear in the side, knocking him over and clearing Fear of the console.

Fear fell flat on the floor before scrambling to his knees. He clung to the console, watching Ian climb into the driver’s seat. “We can’t do this!” he exclaimed in fright.

“We have to!” Joy exclaimed back, just as worried for Ian.

“We got no choice!” Disgust snapped, in more fact that sarcasm.

Anger was attempting to type in a command when Fear began pressing some buttons of his own. Instead of Ian reaching for the keys, Ian reached for the seat belt and buckled up. Anger eyed the screen, upset that his command was ignored. “Hey, what the?”

“You’re too angry to drive!” Fear yelled as he climbed to his feet.

“Last thing Ian needs is to be scared!” Anger shouted, pointing his thick finger into Fear’s face.

Fear was hyperventilating, he could feel those trembling chills creep up his spine. But, with his focus on Ian, he tried to push through and push Anger’s hand away from his nose. “Ian needs to be safe! He’s behind the wheel of a rickety tin tank with irate pixies chasing him!”

“We have no time for this!” Anger snapped.

“You’re right!” Fear screamed. Followed by silence, with Anger fuming but surprised Fear admitted he’s right, and Fear realizing that Ian does need Anger. But, he needs Fear too. Trying to calm his voice, Fear looked to Anger. “You focus on driving, I’ll focus on keeping Ian safe.” Anger glared, but nodded. With Fear standing alert at his side, Anger began to input controls.

Ian shoved the key into the ignition, he turned it a few times, but the engine shuddered, trying and failing to roll over. “Why won’t it start?”  
“There’s a sweet spot,” Barley explained as he climbed onto the shoulder of the driver’s seat. “Not in the middle, not quite at the end.”

Anger watched as Anger tried the same combination of buttons and dials, even similar ones. Fear could hear that engine sputter and strain, but to him it felt like the engine refused to listen to Ian. Why does everything have to go wrong? “Come on… come on…” Anger growled, getting agitated. The pixies were growing ever closer, and appeared to be just feet away from the van now. In a panic, Fear input a similar combination of commands in tandem with Anger.

Ian pressed his cheek against the steering wheel and squeezed his eyes tight. “Come on, Guinevere!” he almost begged as he desperately turned that key once more.

Guinevere struggled with all her might, before revving a braying growl as she came to life.

“It worked?” Fear asked in quiet shock.

“It worked!” Joy jumped with joy.

“Put it in ‘O’ for ‘Onward!’” Barley told Ian.

Anger glared at the ‘O’ covering the ‘D’ on the gear shift. “Gargamon’s Tail, do I want to hate him,” he growled as he input the commands.  
Ian put Guinevere in drive, slammed his foot on the gas pedal, and peeled out onto the onramp. The emotions cheered, proud of their Ian and encoruaging Fear and Anger. Their celebration was cut very short as the driver’s side window erupted into a shatter of glass. Fear shrieked as he grabbed levers, turned dials and pressed buttons.

“Drive! Drive!” Barley shouted, as Ian sped up to get away from the pixies, who were now on Guinevere’s tail.

Fear trembled as he saw the onramp end, merging onto the highway. “Ohhhh, no,” he whimpered.

“You’re going to have to merge,” Barley told Ian. Ian looked over his shoulder at the oncoming semi. 

Fear’s eyes grew wide as he loudly whimpered, “We can’t merge in front of that!” Anger pressed a few buttons, and Guinevere began to merge. Acting fast, Fear quickly pressed a few buttons, and Guinevere jerked back out of traffic.

“I drive!” Anger snapped.

“I keep him safe!” Fear snapped back, in more fright than rage.

“No,” Sadness sniffled.

Joy sighed, “No, Fear.”

“Back off,” Disgust groaned. “Let Anger drive.”

Fear knew he had to listen to the others, but his own thoughts were louder. Anger tried to input his commands again, but Fear countered with his.

Ian tried to merge again, but psyched himself out and pulled Guinevere back onto the quickly ending onramp. “I can’t!”

“Yes, you can!” Barley told Ian.

Anger tried again, Fear tried to hesitate, but quickly countered again.

“I’m not ready!” Ian shouted.

“You’ll never be ready!” Barley shouted back, in some strange defiant way of encouragement. “Merge!”

Fear was in the middle of countering again when he heard Barley. He stopped, he looked at Anger. He’ll never be ready. Fear will never be ready. Fear will never be ready for when Ian finally drives, when Ian is behind a wheel of a dangerous machine. But, everyone does. There’s no fighting it. Second guessing himself, Fear held up his hands and backed away, letting Anger take control.

Cutting it close, between a semi’s grille and a guardrail, Guinevere successfully merged into traffic, all thanks to Ian.

Fear exhaled in relief, followed by catching his breath. It wasn’t long before a loud bang and a reckless tilt of Guinevere caused Fear to tense up and squeak in fear. 

Guinevere rocked back onto her four wheels, and Barley climbed into the open passenger side window. “Hey! Don’t hit Guinny!” he shouted angrily at the bikers.

“Barley!” Ian scooped his little-big-brother into his hand and perched him back onto his shoulder.

“Phew,” Fear gasped.

Barley caught sight of the traffic ahead causing their lane to slow. However, the lane next to them was still going fast. “Get around em.”

“They’re not letting me in,” Ian replied.

“Signal,” Barley told Ian.

Ian blindly brushed his hand on the side of the steering wheel, but only felt frayed wires where a signal shift should be. “You don’t have a signaler!”

“What car doesn’t have a signaler?” Disgust scoffed.

“This is bad,” Fear panicked. “How do we signal without a signaler?”

“Hold your left arm straight out the window,” Barley informed Ian.

Fear paused for a second. “Oh.” He then pulled the left lever in front of him.

Ian held his left hand straight out the wide open driver’s side window. Just as he was merging into the next lane, he felt something slap against his wrist and wrap tightly. Ian turned to see a thick metal chain wrapped around his wrist.

“Oh no!” Sadness gasped.

“Who has one of those!” Joy exclaimed in disbelief.

“It’s a biker gang, Joy!” Disgust replied to Joy.

Ian was attempting to grab at the chain with his free hand, but quickly pulled it back onto the steering wheel to readjust. As Fear kept attempting to help Ian free his wrist, he caught sight of Barley climbing across Ian’s outstretched arm. “What in Feldar’s name is he doing?” he asked in shock.

“Get back here!” Ian called out to Barley.

“Just keep driving!” Barley shouted back over the wind outside the window.

“You heard him,” Anger said as he kept focus on driving.

“But he’s in danger!” Fear exclaimed in panic.

“We got this!” Anger snapped.

“Uh, guys?” Disgust pointed to the vitals on the console. “Ian’s arm is straining.”

Ian looked out the window to see a bunch of pixie bikers controlling one bike while two hold onto the other end of the chain. They merged one lane over, stretching the chain out, holding it and Ian’s arm out in front of an oncoming semi.

“We don’t got this!!” Ian screamed, clinging to Anger.

“Barley!” Ian cried out in fear.

Barley gave a hard punch to nudge that last link loose, unraveling the chain from Ian’s arm. Fear quickly pushed the left lever forward, pulling Ian’s arm back inside where it belongs.

“The mountains are north!” Barley pointed to an interstate exit sign up ahead. “You have to get all the way over!”

Fear saw a small enough gap in traffic, he pressed a few buttons, causing Ian to quickly jolt Guinevere into the next lane. The quick and abrupt jostle of the car caused the blinded and dazed Dad to fall over onto Ian, blocking his view as the disguised half dangled out the driver’s side window. “Not now, dad!” Fear shouted as he got Ian to shove Dad back into the back of the van. Catching his breath, Fear glanced over to see if it’s safe to merge over again. Instead of a clear escape, there was a bunch of furious pixies on a pink motorcycle to Guinevere’s left. Giving a loud yell, a flurry of pixies leaped off the bike and through the window.

Fear kept shaking his head, trying to see through the barrage of pixies crawling over the screen and blocking Ian’s sight. “What’s happening? What’s happening? I can’t see anything but pink, leather and sparkles!”

Disgust checked on the vitals. “No, they’re hurting Ian! We have to stop them!”

“How? We can barely see the road!” Fear shrieked.

“Something! Anything! They’re scratching up his face!” Frustrated, Disgust pushed Fear away and took over at the controls.

“No!!” Fear shoved Disgust aside, trying to gain control.

Joy saw Fear fight for control and exclaimed, “Good idea! Everybody help Ian! He needs us!” Joy and Sadness squeezed into the crowd at the console and began inputting commands.

Barley was busy fighting off a lone pixie on the passenger seat, all the while calling out to his brother, struggling at the wheel. “Ian, stay focused!”

“I can’t!” Ian cried out, barely able to maintain his lane through all the chaos blocking his vision and attacking his face.

“Joy, what are you doing?” Fear called out when he caught sight of the yellow emotion. “Ian doesn’t need to be happy now!”

“I’m trying to help!” Joy called back.

“Keep focused or we’re all dead!” Barley shouted, a little choked through the pixie strangling his neck with the buckle of a seat belt.  
Ian had no hope of focusing. Not with a handful of pixies crawling all over his face, scratching and biting and pulling and punching.  
Fear attempted with the other emotions to try any combination of buttons and dials on the console they can think of, but couldn’t focus through all the chaos going on.

Barley managed to choke out through his struggling, “Just… stay cool!”

Fear immediately stopped what he was doing and stood up straight. “Stay cool… stay cool!” Fear bolted across the floor to the shelves with the idea bulbs. He picked one from a shelf, ran back to the console and shoved it into the idea bulb holder.

Ian turned his attention to the air conditioner on the dash. Struggling through the chaos, he reached for the controls, turning the vents on. A cold, strong blast of air blew through Guinevere, forcefully blowing the pixies off of Ian and out the window.

Barley cheered as his opponent went flying out the window as well. “Way to go, Guinevere!” Losing his grip to the wind, Barley went flying out the window. Within a split second, Ian leaned out the window and gripped tiny Barley tight in his hand.

“Phew!” Fear sighed as he peeled himself off the console.

“Is it over?” Sadness asked.

As Ian pulled tiny Barley back inside, Barley pointed to an exit sign passing them by. “We’re not gonna make it!”

“Oh, yes we are!” Anger proclaimed as he took control.

“I want this to end!!” Fear pleaded as he took over alongside Anger.

With his left arm stretched out the window, Ian merged over the remaining lanes of traffic and onto the exit ramp, barreling through a bunch of highway barrels along the way. Once the screaming and panic died down, all that remained was awkward silence. “Is it safe?” Fear asked.

“Dad, are you okay?” Ian called out to the back of Guinevere, looking into the rear view mirror to see Dad in his disguise, trying to flail back up onto his feet through all the jostling and jolting in the van.

Barley laughed to himself as he stood on Ian’s shoulder. “He’s fine. All thanks to the driving skills of Sir Ian Lightfoot.”

Disgust smirked. “Can’t believe I’m saying this, but big bro’s right.”

“We did it! Ian’s a driver!” Joy cheered, hugging Joy and Disgust together into his glowing yellow arms.

“Don’t touch me,” Anger growled.

Sadness looked over at Fear, who was nervously smiling at the screen. “Nice job with the idea, Fear.”

Fear glanced over at Sadness, blushing a bit of purple across his cheeks. “Oh, heh. You saw that.” Fear immediately snapped his attention back to the screen when he heard a loud slap ring loudly through Headquarters. “What the heck was that?”

Disgust pointed at the vitals display on the console. “Uh, why is Ian suddenly feeling sharp pain?”

“Are the pixies back?” Fear took control as the emotions gathered at the console.

“What’s going on?” Ian asked in complete confusion and surprise. He tried to keep his hands on the wheel and his focus on the road, but between the stinging pain in his cheek, and Barley’s arm suddenly growing back to its normal size, he had no clue what was happening.  
Barley’s head shot back to regular size as he exclaimed, “I think the spell is wearing off!” Barley’s body plumped back to his normal size, shoving Ian down into the driver’s seat.

“Ew! We’re trapped under his butt!” Disgust shrieked as Anger took over.

“Get off my face!” Ian struggled to stay on the road while attempting to shove Barley off of him. With Barley fully resized back to normal, he climbed back into the passenger seat as Ian pushed himself back up into the driver’s seat.

Joy suddenly noticed something glowing in the rear view mirror. “Ooh, pretty lights.”

Fear tensed. “I hear sirens.”

Sadness sighed. “That’s not good…”

Ian looked over his shoulder to verify the worst case scenario. “Shantar’s Talon! Cops!”

“Pull over!” Barley suggested.

“I don’t have a license,” Ian worried.

“My wallet’s still tiny!” Barley declared in shock.

Guinevere pulled over as Fear began to pace the floor. “What are we going to do? How are we going to explain?”

“Maybe they’ll believe us if we say we were chased by pixies,” Joy thought aloud. “Or maybe if they had a magnifying glass, they can still validate Barley’s license.”

“Yeah, Joy,” Disgust added sourly. “And unicorns would fly out of our butts.”

“We need a plan or we’re going to jail!” Anger snapped.

Fear groaned, rubbing his sore temples. “This night can’t get any worse…”

Sadness pointed to the screen and stated, “Dad just walked out of the van.”

“What??” the other emotions exclaimed.

Ian and Barley were hiding in their seats and watching in silent shock as Dad was stumbling out of the back of the van, in full disguise. The two cops got out of the vehicle and approached him, believing him to be an actual person. While the cops were distracted, Ian and Barley crept out of Guinevere through the driver’s side door and hid in front of the van, with nothing but the headlights illuminating their panicked faces as they were knelt down in the dirt.

“They’re gonna take dad,” Ian whispered in complete disbelief and horror.

“Oh no, they’re gonna take dad,” Sadness cried.

“They better not take our dad,” Anger snarled.

“What are we gonna do?” Fear yelped.

“Oh, I got it.” Barley explained to Ian as he drew the plans in the dirt. “A disguise spell. It’s a special spell where you can disguise yourself as anyone you want.”

“That’s perfect!” Joy cheered.

“That’s not!” Fear shot back, trembling as he remembered what happened when Ian failed at the growth spell.

“What if I mess it up again?” Ian asked.

“The decree says ‘To disguise yourself is a lie, so you must tell the truth to get by,” Barley explained. “As long as you don’t tell a lie, the spell will be fine.”

“What?” Anger snapped, completely irritated by such a confusing statement.

“How do we not lie?” Fear asked, squeezing his sides.

“Oh, let Disgust do it!” Joy pointed to Disgust. “She’s the best at lying.”

Disgust was touching up his hair with a few strokes of his comb. “Yeah, I am. But if that staff gives Ian one more splinter, I’m done.”  
“Okay,” Fear said, still unsure about this, “but there’s still one more problem.”

“Who are we gonna be?” Ian asked Barley.

“They’re cops, right? Then why not disguise ourselves as Officer Bronco?” Barley quietly passed the wizard staff to Ian. “Just wave the staff in front of yourself and say ‘Illusio Facadis.’”

“Uhm, okay,” Ian whispered as he took the staff.

“Oh, and I want to be the front,” Barley added.

“The front?” Disgust nearly gagged at the thought of Ian’s face being near Barley’s butt again. He immediately pressed a button while holding his hand over his mouth.

“No way,” Ian replied. “I’ll do the talking.” Before Barley could respond, Ian was already waving the staff in front of himself and whispered, “Illusio Facadis.” Ian and Barley were enveloped in a bright aura of magic that quickly dissipated. Ian looked down at his hands, now wrapped around a thin veil of magic that gave an illusion of Colt Bronco’s hands. In front of him, he could barely make out a thin veil of magic that hid him and Barley, now bent down behind Ian as the “back,” in a realistic vision of Officer Bronco.

Meanwhile, Headquarters was glistening from the console out, covered in magic. The only ones not encased in the glow were the emotions themselves. “Ooh, sparkly.”

“We get it, Joy. You like pretty things,” Disgust said before putting his hands on the controls. “Now let’s go save dad.”

The first few steps were pretty stumbly, making Fear question if this was going to work. But, just as the two brothers appeared from around the van, they got the hang of it. Ian cleared his throat. “What seems to be the problem off-… police folk?”

Ian spoke clearly, but inside Headquarters, the emotions could clearly hear Ian, along with the echo of Bronco speaking simultaneously. “Ooh, neat,” Joy cooed.

Anger nodded. “That is pretty cool.”

The disguise had the cops fooled, as the cyclops one asked, “Bronco? You were in that van?”

“Affirmative,” Ian replied, as Bronco, “and we- I will take full responsibility of that person you have there, so you can release him over to me.”

“Bronco,” the faun cop asked, “I thought you were working the other side of town tonight.”

“I changed my mind,” the Bronco disguised Ian replied.

Suddenly, a loud buzzer rang through Headquarters, and some of the magic faded from the corner of the Headquarter’s ceiling. “Huh? What happened?” Joy asked.

“Look, Ian’s ear.” Sadness pointed to the corner of the screen. On the edge of Ian’s vision, the emotions could see where there used to be Colt’s ear, there was now Ian’s ear.

Fear shrieked and quickly keyed in a few button on the console, causing Ian to jerk his head to the side to hide his ear. Disgust grunted in frustration as he tried to pretend to be Colt again.

“Something wrong?” the cyclops cop asked, now shining her flashlight on what she assumed was Bronco.

“Just a little neck cramp,” Ian replied… then quickly hid his now exposed hand behind his back.

Fear watched the magic fade from one wall of Headquarters. “No! It’s not working!”

“This is impossible!” Disgust snapped. “How am I supposed to lie without lying?”

Barley whispered to Ian, “Try answering a question with a question.”

“Seriously?” Disgust said, eyeing Barley oddly.

“Anyone else got any ideas?” Anger asked, frustrated at this whole fiasco.

“Bronco,” the cyclops cop asked, “what are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” Ian asked. “What is… any of us doing here?”

The faun cop’s eyes grew wide. “Wow... I never thought about it like that.”

Joy smirked at Disgust. “See, Barley gets it right once in a while.”

“With all due respect, you didn’t answer my question,” the cyclops cop responded, not easily fooled like her partner.

Disgust threw his hands in the air. “That’s it. I’m done. Someone else be Bronco.”

“Let me try!” Joy took over at the console.

“We were just running some driver’s education drills with… Ian,” Ian replied, then after a short beat, gave a wavering smile.

The emotions were looking around Headquarters, neither hearing a buzzer nor seeing the magic around them fade further. “Huh? That worked?” Anger asked.

“I’m just as surprised as you are.” Fear shrugged.

“Ian?” The faun cop looked over at Dad, in his full disguise, sitting on the hood of the cop car. “Oh, is that Laurel’s kid?”

“Ian… is Lauren’s kid,” Ian replied.

“Nice one, Joy,” Sadness commented.

The cyclops cop turned to the Bronco disguised Ian. “Your kid was swerving all over the road.”

“Yeah, well,” Ian said, “that guy’s not all there today.”

“Yeah,” the cyclops cops thought aloud, “he does seem a little off.” She then began approaching the Bronco vision, becoming further suspicious. “You seem a little off yourself.”

Joy pulled his hands off the console. “I got… I got nothing.” He looked to the other emotions. “Does anyone have something?”

“No,” Sadness replied.

“Nuh uh,” Disgust shrugged.

“My mind’s a total blank,” Anger said.

As the emotions huddled together, debating how to respond, Fear backed away, squeezing himself tight, as he could feel every single second pass by, too much time passing by. He looked up at the screen as he bumped into the console, all he could see was the blinding light from the cyclops cop’s flashlight. Acting fast, Fear grabbed at the controls.

“Well, if I’m gonna be honest,” Ian began to confess as Bronco, “I’m not truly great at these kinds of situations, and I’m starting to freak out a little bit, and I don’t know what to say, and my hands are sweaty, and I feel like a total weirdo…” The more Ian spoke, the more his nerves became undone, until…

“Fear!” Anger snapped, noticing the purple memories pouring into short term. “What do you think you’re doing? We’re trying to not make Ian act suspicious!”

“But too much time was passing,” Fear panicked as he explained, “and I was trying not to make Ian lie, so I tried the truth, and-“

“Hold on, hold on,” the cyclops cop interrupted. “I know exactly what’s going on here?”

Fear froze. “She does?”

“Uh, you do?” Ian asked.

The cyclops cop paused a moment before replying, “It’s not easy being a new parent. My girlfriend’s daughter’s got me pulling my hair out, okay?” she said with a smile.

Ian returned a nervous, albeit calm, smile. “Oh, uh, yeah.”

Anger had his mouth agape as he looked at the screen. “Huh.” Joy gave Fear a pat on the back, making Fear chuckle nervously.  
“Okay, we can let him go,” the cyclops cop said.

Ian immediately grabbed Dad and shoved him back into the back of Guinevere. “Thanks very much, officers. You two keep working hard, or hardly working,” Ian laughed, attempting Colt’s trademark braying laughter.

Barley smiled up at Ian and whispered, “Now that’s a good Colt.”

“Yes. Yes it was,” Fear chuckled to Joy at the controls.

“I don’t blame you, Bronco,” the faun commented. “That Lightfoot kid is a handful.”

“I have to disagree with you there,” Ian replied. “I think Ian is a standup citizen.”

“Not him,” the faun said. “The older one.”

Ian’s face fell. “What?”

Joy’s face fell. “What?”

“He’s kind of a screw up,” the faun admitted. “You can’t say that you don’t agree.”

“Uh, I don’t,” Ian replied.

Joy jumped as he felt the area of floor next to her lose its magic glow as the fateful buzzer rang throughout Headquarters. Joy was both shocked and confused. “What?”

Barley saw Colt’s front leg turn back into Ian’s leg. “What?” he whispered to himself. Ian looked over his shoulder at Barley’s reaction.

Acting fast, Fear shoved Joy away from the console and quickly took over.

“Well, uh, okay,” Ian stammered, while trying to back out of there and into the van as quickly as possible. “I gotta go. Gotta get Ian home.” Buzz. Ian’s other arm was exposed. “I mean, I’m late for work.” Buzz. Colt’s back half disappeared. Barley and Ian climbed into the driver’s side door, each excuse Ian gave causing the spell to fade further and further until the spell and disguise finally broke, just as they got in the van. Barley grabbed the wheel and took off, Ian climbed into the passenger seat.

Once Ian was finally safe, Fear turned to Joy. Joy was standing out in the open, with the other emotions staring at her. Joy looked just as confused as everyone else.

“Joy?” Fear asked in shock. “You lied?”

“No,” Joy replied in surprise. “I didn’t lie, I swear.”

“Oh, come on,” Anger snarled. “We heard the buzzer. You saw the spell fail.”

“But I didn’t lie,” Joy defended himself. “I love Barley. He’s our older brother.”

“But, the spell,” Fear began.

Disgust interrupted, “Fear’s right. The spell failed. You lied. It’s just that simple.”

“What? No!” Joy was beginning to act like he was protecting himself, trying to clear his name.

Even Sadness was showing doubt. “Joy?”

“Sadness, you know me,” Joy assured Sadness. “I love Barley. I mean, genuinely love Barley. You guys love him too, but you just tolerate him. I actually like the embarrassing, stupid things he does. They’re so innocent and charming. He’s like a kid. Well, kid at heart. He’s way too big to be a kid. And…” Joy noticed Fear, looking over in silence, mouth agape. “Fear?” Joy and the other emotions looked where Fear was staring. Their eyes grew wide and their mouths dropped.

Family Island was up and running.

The emotions raced to the window, as if getting closer to the island would prove they were just seeing things. But it only proved how real this was.

“Ian?” Fear couldn’t believe he was going to ask this. “Ian lied?”

Joy shook his head. “No. No, that can’t be right. Barley is Ian’s big brother. M-maybe something’s wrong with the core memory.” Joy raced over to the core memory holder. He was just about to open it when something forcefully held him back.

“No!” Fear exclaimed. “The core memories are the most important memories that make Ian, Ian. They are safe inside the core memory holder at all times. Right?”

Joy nodded. “Right. Right. How silly of me.”

Fear was going to continue his rant, until he realized how quiet it was. Or, according to the screen, quiet inside Guinevere. “Barley! We gotta get back to the console! Everyone! All hands on deck! We gotta fix this!”

The emotions all immediately ran to the console. Except for Anger, who took a moment to glare suspiciously at the core memory holder safely nestled in the floor before heading back to work.


	7. Detour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian's emotions try to play damage control when Barley's feelings are hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You Barley fans are gonna like this chapter, as we now get a look inside Barley's head! You know, as if writing for one mind isn't enough, now we're jumping between two of them!

The air was thick with silence inside Guinevere. It was never quiet with Barley in the room. There was always noise, either from Barley talking or Barley causing something to happen, be it an adventure, a game, music, encouragement, laughter or mischief. But now, silence. It made Ian feel miles apart from Barley, even when they were both in the front seats of the van.

Ian took a quick glance over from the road to Barley. Barley was focused on the road, as if nothing else existed at that moment. All that was in front of them was darkness, and what little road in front of then that Guinevere could reveal with her headlight. Ian quickly turned his eyes back to the road, the awkward silence rising in the van around them.

Joy eyed the screen curiously. “This is new. I don’t remember Barley acting like this before.”

“Barley’s never been called a screw up before.” Fear clung tightly to his sides, his fingers trembling as his hands squeezed against his sweatshirt. “Especially by his own brother. Oh, we screwed this up. We screwed this whole thing up.”

“We didn’t do anything!” Anger argued, pointing at Family Island. “Ian did!”

“That’s impossible,” Disgust fought back. “Family Island is run by a happy core memory. No way Ian would feel that way about Barley. It must have been Joy, he was at the controls.”

Joy defended himself, “I told you, I didn’t lie! I’m a terrible liar!”

“ENOUGH!!” Fear gripped the sides of his head, took a deep breath, and exhaled. Still shaken, but in some control, he continued, “This arguing is getting us nowhere. And we need to help Barley. Look at him!”

The emotions gathered around the console as they looked up at the screen. Ian glanced over at Barley again, looking stoic, stone, serious. Silent. Barley was loud, Barley was happy, Barley was emotional, always wore his heart on his sleeve. Now, for once in his life, Ian and his emotions were looking at a Barley who focused more on the road than his own feelings. He looked almost emotionless.

Sadness sighed. “What’s going on inside his head?”

~~~~

The Headquarters was dressed like an ancient medieval tavern, with stone foundations, wooden supports and floor. The bare walls, however, were clothed in posters of rock bands, fantasy artwork and Quests of Yore themed memorabilia. There were shelves for such things as mind manuals, idea bulbs and daydreams, but also shelves for board games, snacks and sodas, and CDs and audio cassettes. In the back of Headquarters was a circular table set up for an rpg campaign led by one dungeon master and four players. Scattered across the floor were a few random toys, wrappers, soda cans, and a memory orb or two.

Barley’s Joy was leaning against the console, facing away from the screen, towards the four others that made Barley’s emotions. While the others dressed like Barley, from his pointy ears, blue hair and beanie down to his vest and cargo shorts, his Joy was dressed in the same outfit as Barley’s adventurer costume, complete with horned helmet and toy sword at his side. Usually Barley’s Headquarters was busy, moving, loud. But the emotions, even his Joy, needed a moment of quiet to think this through.

“We must have misheard him,” Barley’s Joy finally spoke, his childish smile now a serious smirk. “That must have been it. That’s the only explanation.”

“Joy, we heard him,” Barley’s Anger growled. “I heard him, you heard him. Feldar’s Horn, we all heard him!”

“Ugh, I can’t believe this,” Barley’s Disgust scoffed. “After all those years, all those memories. This is how he treats us?”

Barley’s Fear was rocking back and forth on the couch. “How could he think such a thing about us? A screw up? A screw up? What did we screw up to deserve this?”

Barley’s Sadness simply bawled into the collar of his denim vest.

“Okay okay, so maybe he said it,” Barley’s Joy admitted, “but that doesn’t mean he means it.”

“It’s magic, Joy!” Barley’s Anger shouted, jumping up onto his feet. “You can’t lie to magic!”

“Barley?” Ian quietly, and finally, spoke.

Barley’s Joy turned to the screen, the other emotions gathered around the console with him.

“I don’t know what happened back there,” Ian softly said, “but I don’t think you’re a screw up.”

Barley’s Joy gave a smile. “See? Mystery solved. Ian didn’t mean it.”

Barley’s Anger held up his hand, backing Barley’s Joy away from the console. His Anger snapped his head back to the screen and glared.

“Maybe the magic got it wrong,” Ian thought aloud.

“Oh, you’re asking for it, kid.” Barley’s Anger cracked his knuckles and slammed his fist onto the console.

Barley responded with the quietest, emotionless, “yeah.” Without taking his eyes off the road, Barley turned on the radio. The silence was now drowned out by rock music, but that didn’t end the awkwardness growing between them.

Joy smiled a little. “Well, he said something.”

“That’s not good enough.” Fear pressed a few buttons on the console.

“I don’t know what happened,” Ian called out over the music. Barley responded by turning the music up louder. Even with the tunes being ear splitting inside the small space of Guinevere, Ian still called out to him. “Barley? Barley!”

“You stupid little runt!” Barley’s Anger yanked on the big levers in front of him. 

Barley, without a word, turned almost recklessly into a small, lone rest area off the side of the road. Nothing was there except a small vending machine, a smaller building for a restroom, and one wooden picnic table by a tree. Guinevere’s side door flew open as Barley jumped out and stormed his way straight to the vending machine. In his haste, he tore open a small bag of cheese puffs and shoved a handful into his mouth.

Ian climbed out of the van after him. “Barley! Come on!”

“Say something!” Fear begged. “Anything!!”

“I am not a screw up,” Barley said, straight and sternly.

“Anything but that!” Fear cried.

“Let me try.” Joy took the controls.

“I never said you were,” Ian replied.

“The magic said it for you,” Barley argued, trying to purchase a soda from the vending machine.

“Well,” Ian tried to explain away the situation, “maybe the magic got it wrong.”

“What?” Barley’s Joy gasped in disbelief.

Barley’s Disgust said flatly, “He did not just say that.”

Barley’s Anger removed his beanie as he grabbed the levers in front of him. “That’s it!” he roared as flames rose furiously from atop his head.

“Magic doesn’t get it wrong!” Barley snapped, turning to Ian as he slammed his bag of cheese curls against the concrete at his feet. “The cop asked a question, you answered, and magic revealed the truth. Right?”

Ian was left standing alone, looking anywhere but at his brother, while his emotions were scrambling for an answer.

“No, I didn’t lie,” Joy replied.

“Someone did,” Disgust argued, glaring at Joy.

“Well, it wasn’t me!” Joy stepped back.

“And it wasn’t Ian!” Anger argued, glaring back up at Joy.

“Would everyone just stop arguing and think of something!” Fear snapped at all of them. “Barley needs an answer!”

Barley glared further at Ian. No matter how much Ian looked away, he could still feel Barley’s hurtful, irate stare. “Right?” he asked again.

At a loss, Fear slammed his hand on a button.

“I don’t know how any of this stuff works!” Ian finally responded, in as much panic as frustration. “All I know is that everything we’ve done tonight has gone wrong!”

“It’s gone wrong because you won’t listen to me,” Barley argued.

“Oh, you are not pinning this on Ian,” Disgust said as he pressed a few buttons on the console.

Fear gasped. “Disgust, no!”

Ian was taken aback, but returned in disbelief. “Are you kidding? Cause everything tonight was your idea.”

“That little snot nosed brat!” Barley’s Disgust snapped as he took over.

“Because you wouldn’t let me handle things my way,” Barley debated. “You wouldn’t let me handle the Manticore, you freaked out when I talked to the sprites, because you don’t think I have any good ideas.”

“No!” Fear shrieked as he scrambled for the controls.

“That’s not true!” Joy cried as he input a similar command on the other side of the console.

“What?” Ian exclaimed. “Of course I do!”

Barley’s Disgust smirked in disbelief as he flicked a switch.

“Great,” Barley replied, adding defiantly, “then I think we should take the Path of Peril.”

Joy nodded with a smile. “Oh, fair enough,” he thought to himself as he pressed a few buttons.

“And I also think that would be good,” Ian replied. “… normally.”

“See?” Barley snapped.

Joy pulled his hands back. “Hey, what the?” In his confusion, he caught Fear on the other side of the console, with his finger on a button. Realizing he was caught, Fear pulled his hand back and gripped his sides.

“Fear!” the emotions shouted, in various levels of confusion and irritation.

“No, you don’t understand!” Fear froze, trying to think of how to explain this. Realizing he had none, he grabbed the controls instead.

“Fear?” Joy called out as he and the other emotions crowded around Fear.

“I told you, this is not a game,” Ian explained to Barley. “And what’s important right now is dad. And right now he’s in that van, and he’s confused…”

Fear tried to keep on the console as the emotions tried to pull him off. “No, no! I’m trying to help Ian!” he pleaded.

“Ian needs to forgive Barley!” Joy called out.

“That doesn’t mean follow the death trail!” Fear shouted back.

“That doesn’t mean being a console hog either!” Disgust snapped.

“Guys! Stop! Look!” Sadness shouted, pointing at the screen. The emotions stopped fighting and looked up. Onscreen was Barley, but instead of being angry at Ian, he was looking over Ian’s shoulder at… well, whatever it was, it sure was leaving Barley dumbfounded.

“What?” Ian asked, confused and concerned. He turned to where Barley was looking, which appeared to be Guinevere. The van was bouncing around a bit as Dad’s legs were hopping from one foot to another in the beat of the music. Or, at least attempting to be in time with the music. “What is he doing?” Ian asked, just as unsure as Barley was.

Barley’s emotions were staring in a daze at Dad bounding out of the side of the van. “I don’t know,” Barley’s Joy said slowly. “But, I think…”

“I think dad can feel the vibrations of the music,” Barley told Ian, “and he’s… dancing.”

Ian’s emotions were at a loss at what they were looking at. “Even I know that’s not dancing,” Disgust commented.

“Do seizures run in our family?” Sadness thought aloud.

As he watched the mannequin top half off Dad flop off, leaving just the energetic dancing legs behind, Joy began to give a little chuckle. “This is kind of cute… in a horribly embarrassing way.”

“Wow.” Ian exhaled a chuckle to himself, not able to take his eyes off what he is seeing. “He is terrible.”

Barley had to agree, “Yeah, he’s really, really bad.” Barley noticed the legs approaching him, then fumble to wrap his leg around Barley’s and pull him onto the grass by the picnic table. Barley couldn’t help but laugh as Dad went back, still dancing, approaching Ian.

“Oh, here he comes,” Fear said in disbelief.

“Oh no, don’t let it touch us,” Disgust said aloud.

“Come on, it’s just dad.” Joy smiled as he watched Ian get nudged onto the grass.

“Does Dad want us to… but Ian’s not a good dancer,” Fear told the others.

“Compared to that?” Anger asked, pointing to Dad’s legs, practically flailing as it danced in the middle of the small plot of grass, between Ian and Barley.

“Oh! Oh! I just thought of something!” Joy pressed a button.

“Just imagine what the top half of this dance looks like,” Ian said with a laugh.

Barley’s Joy lit up with excitement. “Oh! I got this!”

“I bet it goes something like this.” Barley stepped behind Dad, then began waving his finger in the air, trying to dance goofily.

The two brothers shared a laugh as the legs between them kept dancing to his own tune, or some kind of tune, definitely not the music playing from Guinevere from the looks of how his legs flailed about. Ian’s emotions shared a good laugh as Disgust helped Ian barely move his feet and arms, at a basic attempt at joining in on the dancing. Barley was getting into the music and dancing along, in his Headquarters even his emotions were dancing like no one was watching. Dad tripped on a rock, causing him to fall backwards onto his waist. “Oh, I got him,” Barley’s Joy said as he got to the console.

Barley helped the legs to sitting when Barley noticed, “Looks like you danced your shoelaces off, pop.” As Barley tied Dad’s shoes, Ian picked up the mannequin and placed it back on the sentient legs.

Barley’s Sadness stood next to Joy and flipped a switch.

“You know,” Barley said, “I want to see dad too.”

Joy pressed a button in response as the other emotions stopped dancing at the console.

“Yeah, I know,” Ian replied.

Barley finished tying Dad’s shoes and stood. “It’s not fair for you to call me a screw up if you don’t give me a chance to do something right.”

The emotions’ smiles faded, remembering what they were doing before the dancing. Still unsure, Fear pressed a few buttons.  
Ian asked, “Are you sure this Path of Peril is the best way to get to the mountain?”

Barley smiled softly, surely, and nodded.

It was still not enough to convince Fear. Then again, it would take moving a mountain to convince him. Still looking for answers, Fear looked to his left. Disgust and Sadness both looked up at him and nodded. He looked to his right at Anger and Joy. Joy smiled, placed his hand on Fear’s shoulder, and nodded. Still unsure, Fear pressed a button.

Ian smiled. “Okay.”

Barley and Ian helped their Dad back into Guinevere and returned to the road. Not a word was exchanged between the brothers, they were both quiet and reserved. But inside Barley’s Headquarters, the emotions were celebrating as if they completed a quest.

“To Raven’s Point, my men!” Barley’s Joy triumphantly stood at the console, unsheathed his sword and pointed boldly ahead. “Onward!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And if you're curious, I personally do see Barley having all male emotions. But, if you imagine a female emotion, go ahead. Same for Ian too, if you see him having a female emotion or two, or all of them, you can do that. Even if I did call the emotions as males, I'm not going to stop any readers from imagining what they personally see the emotions as.


	8. Dream Duty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fear takes his turn at dream duty when Ian takes a nap in the back of Guinevere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far we've been following the story of Onward along with the story going on in Ian's head. But this chapter doesn't take place in the film Onward. That's right, this is the one part of the story that is, outside of the crossover and properties, completely original. You could also consider this a deleted scene from Onward if you wish.

Thankfully, and finally, things were becoming uneventful. Ian and Barley were driving down a bumpy, unpaved road into an untamed wilderness that’s been hardly touched for decades in the darkness of night, but other than that, uneventful. They’ll be safe inside Guinevere, right?

Fear was overlooking the short term memory shelves, a task he ritually does every night before Ian falls asleep. He was jotting down notes in his little notepad, noting and checking the memories of key events throughout Ian’s day. He also made a note of how there were a lot of purple memories at the start of Ian’s day, but throughout the evening it became less and less. Sure, he was in charge a lot, he still as a job to do. But seeing more colors, more signs that his coworkers have helped Ian, maybe this is a sign that he’s on the right track.

“Hey Fear?” Disgust asked, approaching the purple emotion from behind.

“Whuh!” Fear fumbled to grab his notepad in midair, but had to bend over for his pen.

Disgust couldn’t help but cross his arms and roll his eyes. “Hmph, you are so jumpy.”

“Heh heh, thanks?” Fear said as he stood up, holding his notepad in front of him like a security blanket.

“Speaking of that,” Disgust continued,” that’s what I wanted to say… thanks.”

Fear was taken aback by that. Disgust was being nice to him? Well, he was still snarky, but the green emotion’s tone was less snippy. “Thanks?”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” Disgust smirked, brushing a loose stand of hair back in place. “But seriously, I’ve noticed you’ve been acting different tonight. Okay, you’re still a frightened little scaredy dragon, but I’ve noticed you trying to hold back and let us on the console some more. You’re even letting us share it sometimes. You’re still not good at it, but you’re doing better. So, my point is, keep at it.” Disgust leaned in and smoothed out a wrinkle on Fear’s sweat shirt. “And try fabric softener next time.”

Fear was silent as he watched Disgust walk away on that prideful saunter of his. Disgust was still acting like Disgust, but he almost said a compliment to Fear! Maybe… maybe things are getting better. As he thought this, Fear caught Anger walking by. “Hey, Anger,” he smiled and waved.

Anger gave the most judgmental sneer as he stormed by. “grrrrrrrr……..”

Fear nearly sank as he stepped back in fright. Okay, maybe things aren’t getting better.

“Uh oh,” Joy reported playfully, noting the vitals on the console. “Looks like sleepyhead can’t keep his eyes open any longer.”

“Okay gang,” Fear announced. “Let’s get Ian somewhere safe to sleep. We need him well rested for when he meets dad tomorrow.”

“Ugh, how is going to sleep in this dirty old van?” Disgust thought aloud. “And he has no comb or toothbrush. He’s going to be a total mess tomorrow. I can’t let that happen!”

Sadness helped Ian into the back of the van as Joy pointed out a small bench in the back they can sleep on. Joy patted Sadness’s back and left the console, Sadness alone to help Ian settle in on the narrow plank as best as he could. Joy approached Fear as he was passing by the recall tube. “Hey, great birthday so far, right?” Joy said to Fear cheerfully.

Fear chuckled nervously, but his smile was genuine. “Yeah. Unforgettable.”

“Hey, don’t give the forgetters down in long term any ideas,” Joy joked.

“Oh they better not forget these memories,” Fear replied, his fearful side showing through more. “These are very good memories we made today.”

“Dang right, they are,” Joy said before asking, “So, you’re on dream duty tonight, right?”

“Yup, Ian should be hitting R.E.M. any minute now,” Fear commented as he looked up at the screen, watching as Ian’s eyelids fall heavier with every blink. “You guys should go get ready for bed.”

“Actually,” Joy replied, “the other emotions and I have been talking, and we think we should sleep on the floor tonight.”

Fear’s face fell, his nerves rising. “You’ve… been talking about me?”

“No, not you,” Joy replied, trying to calm Fear’s worries. “We’ve just been thinking that today has been pretty eventful, and we should be nearby so we can get back to work when Ian wakes up. Don’t worry, we’ll be right on those couches over there,” Joy pointed to the couches. “We’ll be right there if you need us.”

“Okay,” was all Fear could manage as Joy ran off. But, inside, he was feeling less okay than he felt just moments ago.

Sadness watched as Ian’s eyes closed and remained closed, leaving the screen blank. “We’re asleep,” Sadness reported.

“Good job, gang,” Fear said as he tapped his foot on a button by the recall tube, sending the memories cascading from their shelves and rolling into the various recall tubes into long term memory. “Let’s get some sleep. Ian has an even bigger day ahead tomorrow.”

The other emotions chatted to each other as they both settled in on the couches. Fear took that moment to leave for the break room, making a quick cup of soothing tea to enjoy during dream duty. When he returned, he found Headquarters was quiet and dormant. The short term memory shelves were empty, and the memories were flying off into long term memory through the recall tubes. Anger, Joy, Sadness and Disgust were curled up together on the couches. Sadness lying flat on his back, Anger sleeping in a sitting position with his hands folded over his abdomen, Disgust with his head and legs propped up on some pillows, and Joy curled up in a cherub like fetal position, his hands tucked under his grinning face. Fear crossed the floor and gently placed his mug on the edge of the console.

Fear then took that moment to quietly panic to himself. What am I doing, he practically screamed inside his head. He threw his head back, his knees practically buckled as he shoved the palms of his hands against his tightened shut eyes, his nerve twisted up into a ball nestled into his blue hair. After giving a big, irate, terrified groan through his grit teeth, Fear finally broke from his melodramatic stance and began to ritualistically pace back and forth by the console, his hands gripping tightly at his sides.

Things couldn’t be falling apart any further if they tried! Ian had the worst birthday ever, and let’s not forget how his birth night has been! Magic gifts! Half a dad! Fiery Manticores! Car chases! Blood thirsty pixie dusters! And who was the liar?? Was Joy the liar? How could that be possible? Joy must be the only emotion in Ian’s head who loves Barley the most, and can genuinely tolerate him. What about Disgust, or Anger? Even Sadness doesn’t like Barley that much. But, none of them were at the console when the spell failed. And why was Family Island lit up? Ian tolerates his big brother too, and the yellow core memory powering Family Island, including the statue of Ian and Barley, proves it. So why was it lit up? And what was Fear thinking?? Agreeing to take the Path of Peril?? For crying out loud, it’s called the Path of Peril!! It couldn’t be more blatant of a stop sign if the name was emblazoned on a bright red octagon!!

Fear froze in his tracks as the projector whirred to life from the console, displaying a live broadcast from Dream Productions. Well, looks like Fear can focus on dream duty instead, for now. Fear took a sip of his tea as he watched from behind the console.

Onscreen began one of the usual dreams Ian commonly had. It was nighttime, the sky was clear and littered with bright stars. Ian was on a cliff that was overlooking a steep drop into the sea. Okay, not literally on a cliff, Ian was safely away from the cliff so all he could hear was the ocean waves. As well as crickets, the crickets sounded a little louder than the waves tonight. Sound mixing must be getting their act together down in Dream Productions.

Ian was busying himself with a telescope, overlooking the stars. After looking into the telescope for a brief moment, Ian adjusted the focus, looked again, adjusted the tracking, looked again. He caught a shooting star flash by, so fast he could have missed it if he blinked. He stood up and made a note in his notebook before going to the front of the telescope to check on a few things.

Fear smiled, he took another sip of his tea. He liked these stargazing dreams. Relaxing, uneventful. And they didn’t easily turn into nightmares like those dreams at school usually do.

Ian turned and left his telescope so he can bend over and pick up a star atlas out of his book bag. As he turned back to approach his telescope, he paused, his eyes slowly grew in wonder. Instead of the telescope, there stood a wizard staff. It was sticking humbly out of the ground, but stood straight and proud, as the warm glow of an orange gem began to light the night around them. Though it was still night, the sky began to illuminate like the recent dusk of sunset.

Fear looked at the screen, both curious and worried of where this is going.

Random selection of stars began to glow and drift slowly yet gracefully from the night sky. They floated both aimlessly like feathers, but with direction like fireflies. One by one, the stars gathered in the open between Ian and the wizard staff, as Ian silently watched in awe. The stars gathered into a collective of light, which gradually took shape, and faded into the form of a familiar stranger.

Dad.

Fear was in as much wonder as Ian was, both praying that it wasn’t a dream. Fear slowly approached the screen, as slowly as Ian approached his dad. With each step, it as if Fear could feel their wish that this was real growing, as if he was stepping ever nearer to reality, with the burdened truth that he would never reach it. But in the dream world, anything could happen. Thankfully, the miraculous, graceful and forgiving side of the dream world was unfolding tonight.

Fear stopped just inches from the screen, looking as if he was standing in the field right beside Ian, as Ian was standing just inches from his dad. After the longest pause, it felt like a minute short of eternity, Ian collapsed into dad’s welcoming, loving hug. Ian squeezed tight as he could, never wanting to let go, letting his tears fall if they must and stain dad’s sleeve.

A little sniffle was heard, but Fear knew that sound didn’t come from the dream. He gave Ian the biggest smile as he placed his hand on the screen, looking like he placed his hand on Ian’s shoulder. 

“Not much longer, Ian,” Fear whispered to Ian. “Tomorrow, you’ll finally see your dad. And you’ll finally be the person you were meant to be.” Fear gave a smile with the least amount of worry and timidness that he ever gave in his life. “I promise.”

In the van, Ian rolled over into a more comfortable position on the narrow bench. It appeared a small smile was on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, as of this date, this is as much of the story that I have written so far. So, like the people who follow this on tumblr, you guys on Ao3 are gonna have to wait as well. But that shouldn't be long. Not only do I want this finished before I see Soul, but I can't wait to see how Fear handles the Trust Bridge! Also, quick note, the Trust Bridge scene is my favorite scene in Onward. As for Inside Out, it's the whole damn film, I just friggin love everything about that movie.


	9. Perils

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The emotions try to help Ian survive the perils of the Path of Peril.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for holding on guys! Bit of a hiatus for a really funny reason: I told my mom the story I'm working on, and she immediately said "STOP!! TAKE IT DOWN!! SELL IT TO PIXAR!!" Long story short, can't sell it to Pixar. Oh well, let's keep going and hope at least one of their employees reads and enjoys it (crosses fingers) please be Pete Docter and Dan Scanlon, please be Pete Docter and Dan Scanlon...

Joy gave a big stretch and a long yawn as he awoke from his sleep on the couch. As he rose to his feet, Sadness next to him groggily sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Disgust and Anger were next to awaken as Joy approached the console, noticing Fear jumping from left to right and back again, messing with the controls. Confused, Joy looked up at the screen, still blank, still clarifying that Ian is asleep. “What’s going on?” Joy asked.

Fear finally let go of a lever before twisting a few dials. “I dunno. Everything was peaceful, then Ian’s equilibrium went haywire.” Fear pointed to Ian’s vitals, specifically the equilibrium display that should show Ian at perfect balance is swinging back and forth, showing sleeping Ian is being shaken by something.

Sadness eyed the screen, appearing to show signs of light, as if Ian’s eyes were trying to stay closed, but beginning to open. “I think Ian is waking up.”

“Is that what interrupted my beauty rest?” Disgust huffed.

The emotions gave a starting yelp as the screen lit up, Ian’s vision just a blur of colors as he rolled off of the wooden bench and onto the van floor.

“Yay, Ian’s up!” Joy cheered.

“Is he hurt?” Fear cried out, checking his vitals. “That was quite a spill!”

As Ian climbed up onto his knees, he caught sight of his Dad, complete in his disguise, lying on the floor. It appeared when Ian was rolled out of his sleep, he rolled into his Dad. He felt Dad’s foot pat the top of Ian’s head. “Yeah, I’m still here, Dad,” Ian chuckled as he brushed the foot off his head.

“Ew, who knows what gross things Dad stepped in,” Disgust gagged.

“Forget that,” Fear said, still grabbing controls in a poor attempt to keep Ian’s balance. “What’s shaking Guinevere?”

“We’re in a van,” Anger replied.

“But Guinevere’s shocks were never this bad,” Fear added.

Ian finally made his way to the front of the van, his eyes squinted as he saw the bright light of the morning sun pour through the windshield. Barley was at the wheel, happily greeting Ian and Dad with, “Well, good morrow, Lightfoot men. Welcome to the Path of Peril.”

“Not much of a path,” Ian thought aloud, eyeing the remains of a dirt trail barely visible under the overgrowth of grass and rocks.

“Here, let me help,” Joy told Fear as he stepped in, grabbing controls to help Ian keep balance.

“Yeah, they don’t do any paving around here,” Barley commented. “So heads up, we could run into anything. A centicore, a wolf dragon, a gelatinous cube…”

Ian laughed to himself. “Okay, what’s a gelatinous cube?”

Barley explained, “It’s a giant green cube that instantly disintegrates anything it touches.”

Joy was laughing by how absurd the very idea sounded, but Fear was all around shaken to his core. “Di-di-di-disintegrates? Anything??”

“Oh please,” Joy told Fear, “Nobody’s disintegrating-“

“BRAKE!!” Anger, Sadness and Disgust shouted, pointing at the screen. Fear immediately screamed while simultaneously slamming his hand down on a big button.

“We’re not going to run into- OH STOP!!” Ian interrupted himself with his loud shout. Barley immediately slammed on the brakes, Guinevere immediately screeched to a halt, her front tires mere inches from the edge of the sharp steep cliff.

“…. Are we dead?” Fear finally squeaked, finally opening his eyes.

After finally peeling their faces off the windshield, Ian and Barley stepped out of Guinevere. They both approached the cliff, each taking careful steps as they approached closer to the edge. Ian couldn’t help it and looked straight down into the sharp drop into darkness below. “What is this?”

“Bottomless pit,” Barley replied, in both seriousness and caution. “Whatever falls in there, falls forever.”

Just as he spoke that, Ian and Barley caught sight of Dad blindly walking towards the edge of the bottomless pit. Ian stretched his arm out to stop him, but only knocked off the fake top half. Thankfully, Barley quickly caught the real bottom half of Dad by the waist and pulled him away from the cliff.

“The top half isn’t real, you idiot!” Anger shouted into Fear’s face, causing the purple emotion to wince.

As Ian walked Dad back into the van, Barley caught sight of a large object still standing tall on the other side. “Hey Ian, check it out! This is an ancient drawbridge. We lower that bad boy, and we are on our way to Raven’s Point.” As Ian returned to the edge of the pit, Barley instructed, “Look around for a lever.”

“Okay, lever, no problem,” Fear thought aloud, as he began to scan the area within Ian’s eyesight.

Sadness noticed something and pointed with a frown. “Uh, guys?”

Fear looked where Sadness pointed… to the far distant other side of the bottomless pit. “Ooh, problem.”

“Found it,” Ian announced nervously. “But, it’s on the other side.”

“Relax,” Joy told the other emotions. “We have magic, remember?”

“Oh, right,” Fear sighed as he put a command in on the console.

Ian took a relaxing breath as he took up his staff. “Okay, I got this… aloft elevar!” A bright flash of light shot out of the staff, but fizzled out into thin air halfway across the pit.

The emotions unanimously tilted their heads to the side in confusion. “Huh?”

Barley couldn’t help but laugh. “You can’t cast a levitation spell that far away! It’s got like a fifteen meter enchanting radius!”

“How were we supposed to know that?” Anger yelled, stomping up to the console.

Joy flew in and stood between Anger and the console. “No no, we don’t need Ian to be angry yet.”

“Emphasis on yet,” Disgust muttered.

“What we need is a trust bridge,” Barley suggested. “It’s a spell that makes a magic bridge that you can walk across. Just say, ‘bridgrigar invisia.’” Barley stepped back, gladly giving Ian room to cast the spell.

“Wait, you want us to do it now?” Fear asked aloud.

“Just do it,” Disgust ordered, stamping his foot.

Fear stepped back defensively. “Okay.” He stepped towards the console and took the controls.

Ian took his stance at the edge of the pit, pointing his staff forward. “Bridgrigar invisia!” he proclaimed.

Fear peeled his hands slowly off the controls as he eyed the screen in confusion. “Where’s the bridge?” he asked aloud, the other emotions also loudly questioning what’s happening. They could see the console glowing in a lustrous blue aura, much like the one nestled in the prongs of the staff, but that’s it.

Ian was completely puzzled. “It didn’t work.”

“No, the spell’s still going,” Barley explained, pointing to the ball of blue light nesting within the twisting branches of the staff. “You won’t know if the spell worked until you step on it.”

“Step on what?” Fear asked in unison with Ian.

“If you believe the bridge is there, then it’s there,” Barley explained further.

“But it’s not,” Ian stated.

“Well, not with that attitude,” Barley replied.

In a crazed panic, Fear started barking at the other emotions. “Is he serious? Is he for real serious? Is this for real? This can’t be- he can’t be serious!” Fear slammed his hands down on the console.

“I’m not gonna step out onto nothing!” Ian exclaimed, eyes wide in complete and utter fear.

Barley paused a moment in thought, then his face lit up as if one of his wild ideas slipped into his head. He ran off towards the back of Guinevere and threw the back doors open, leaving Ian alone to stare into the deep pit, stone solid at his feet while his arms trembled in fright.

Fear still had his hands planted firmly on the console, his body trembling so furiously purple particles beginning to pop off of his form. Cautiously, Joy began to step forward, gently speaking, “Okay, okay, breathe. Breathe, relax.”

“I can’t relax,” Fear interrupted, hanging his head as his whole body hunched over the console in a desperate attempt to protect it. “I can’t relax, I can’t relax. There’s nothing to relax about!”

Disgust rolled his eyes. “He’s having a break down again.”

“Shut up!” Fear turned, standing firmly in place, arms wide apart as his fingers clung to the edge of the console that his purple knuckles were turning white. Disgust tensed up as she looked back with his eyes wide in shock. “Of course I’m having a break down!” Fear shouted, frustration and trembling fear in his voice. “It’s my job to keep Ian safe! If I don’t do my job, Ian will die! And now… now I have to walk Ian off a cliff to his death??!”

The emotions were still in stunned silence. They’ve seen Fear snap before, even break down before, but never to such a magnitude as this. After an awkward silent passed, Joy finally sheepishly said, “Only if the spell fails.”

“Of course it’s gonna fail, Joy!” Fear shouted at her, causing Joy to jump back. “There’s nothing to walk on but the sweet embrace of Ian’s eternal fall to his torturous unending end!”

“Ian!” Barley’s voice called out.

Fear slumped his strained face into his hands in defeat. “Oh, sweet Shamblefoot, now what?” he muttered in exasperation before turning back to the console.

Ian was broken out of his terrified trance when he felt Barley tie a thick rope around his waist. He looked over his shoulder to see his brother tie the other end of the long rope around a small boulder nearby and give it a few tugs to make sure it was tight.

Joy approached the console as she looked up at the screen. “Ohh, I see what he’s doing.”

“So do I,” Fear added in disbelief. “And I don’t like it.”

“And now we have a rope,” Barley said. “But you’re not gonna need it.”

“I WANT THE ROPE!!” Ian and Fear shouted in unison.

“Okay,” Barley continued, “I’m just saying, you’re not gonna need the rope because I know you can make that bridge.” With that, Barley gave an encouraging slap to Ian’s shoulder, perhaps a little too hard as Ian was pushed forward a bit with a grunt. Ian stood at the edge of the cliff, feet frozen to the ground, looking down into the endless abyss in fright.

Fear body shivered with fright as he stared up into the screen. Joy took the moment to step forward and place a soft hand on Fear’s shoulder, but even that was enough to make him jump. “Hey,” she still said softly, looking into Fear’s eyes. “You can do this.”

Once he body loosened a bit, Fear attempted to nod. “I can do this… I can do this…” His words were quiet, hesitant, but he still attempted to believe them as he took his hands and placed them on the console.

Ian lifted his staff outward, loosening his foot from the ground and stretching it out over the edge of the cliff. His foot visibly shaking, Ian tried to close his eyes and focus. Once he felt he believed enough, he stepped forward. 

Simultaneously and instantaneously, both the aura enveloping the console and within the staff disappeared, and Ian was falling into the pit.  
Ian screamed in terror, only outmatched by Fear’s screams echoing through Headquarters. Even when the rope grew taught, stopping Ian’s fall, Ian and Fear were still believing that it was the end for them.

“I told you! I told you!” Fear cried, clinging to the console for dear life. “I can’t do it! I can’t do it! And now we’re done for!”

“I’m dying! I’m dying!” Ian cried, clinging to his staff for dear life. “I’m dead! I’m dead! I’m dead! My life is over!”

“I got you!” Barley’s voice called out as Ian was pulled up by the rope.

“Hey hey hey! Fear! Fear!” Joy’s voice rang through Fear’s head, but Fear was too far gone to respond.

“I got this!” Anger peeled Fear off the console and gave him a hard smack across the face. Fear spun a few times before falling onto the console in a daze. He listlessly lifted himself off the console so he was merely leaning over it, only held up by his arms, while trying to get his bearings.

“Get yourself together, Fear!” Disgust snapped.

“I can’t!” Fear yelled.

“You have to, Fear,” Joy told Fear. “You need to protect Ian during the spell.”

“It’s easier to protect him when he’s on the ground!” Fear shouted.

“Well that’s not an option!” Anger screamed.

“YES IT IS!!” Fear screamed back at him.

“Everyone, stop!!” Joy shouted before grabbing Fear by the shoulders and looking him in the eyes. “Fear, listen to me. Ian needs you.”

“I know, but-“ Fear sputtered.

“Ian can’t do this without you,” Joy stated.

“I know, but-“

“No buts.”

“But-“

As the two emotions went back and forth, Barley pulled Ian back to the top of the cliff and bear hugged him tightly into his arms. He lifted Ian out of the pit and back onto the ground, letting the stiff and terrified Ian stand on his own two legs, gasping in fear.

“Okay, you fell,” Barley said in his encouraging tone. “Now, was that so bad?”

“YES!!” Fear shouted as he turned to the screen.

“YES!!” Ian shouted as he turned to Barley.

“Are you still alive?” Barley asked firmly.

Fear opened his mouth to respond, but paused. Joy leaned against the console, giving Fear a positive yet smug grin. Feeling defeated, Fear narrowed his eyes and sighed a groan before tapping a button on the console.

Ian sighed an admitted, “Yes.”

“Okay, so now you know the worst that could happen,” Barley explained, “so there’s nothing to be scared of, right?”

Ian gave a soft nod and a quiet, “Right,” while glancing back unassuredly at the pit.

Joy pulled his hand back from the console as Fear was shaking his head back and forth. “No, no no, no, this makes no sense at all.”

“Look, Barley believes in Ian,” Joy said softly but firmly. “And I believe in you.”

“But I don’t believe a bridge is there,” Fear replied, “especially when it’s not there!”

“I do.” Joy smiled as he stood next to Fear at the console. “So, let’s try it again, but together. I’ll believe in Ian-“

“I believe in Ian,” Fear clarified. “I just don’t believe in me- BRIDGE! BRIDGE! I don’t believe the BRIDGE is there!”

Joy placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. “Then I’ll believe the bridge is there,” he clarified with Fear. “You focus on Ian’s steps, and get him safely to the other side.”

Fear finally nodded. “Okay… okay…”

Barley held onto the rope as Ian held up his staff. Ian pointed his staff outward and proclaimed again, “Bridgrigar invisia!” The blue aura of magic appeared within the prongs of the staff again, but Ian could only see empty space over an endless drop into the abyss. Fear could see the console wrapped in the magical aura, but his hands were shaking as he gripped the two big levers in front of him, Ian’s arms began to tremble.

“Hey,” Barley stated to Ian. “You can do this.”

Fear began to shake his head again. Ian can do it, but he can’t, which means Ian’ can’t.

“Hey,” Joy almost whispered to Fear, an encouraging optimistic smile on his face. “The sooner we’re on the other side, the sooner we get to Dad.”

That was barely enough for Fear to stop shaking his head and give a nod instead. He gripped the left lever as Ian held his left foot out over the pit. Fear took a deep breath, closed his eyes, Ian took a deep breath, and Fear pushed the lever forward.

Ian lowered his left foot, feeling it plant firmly onto solid ground. Ian opened up his eyes, and so did Fear, both seeing the solid ground was an aura of magic, just big enough to hold Ian’s foot in the air.

Joy sprang with excitement. “You did it! We did it! Ian did it!” The other emotions were in a quiet awe as Fear exhaled a nervous laugh.  
The Lightfoot brothers shared a congratulatory laugh with each other when they realized the spell worked. Feeling confident, Ian took another step forward. Instead of solid, however, Ian stepped on air, causing him to lose his balance.

The emotions gave a unified, shocked scream as Barley pulled back on the rope, pulling Ian back into his balance on just one foot. “Believe with every step,” Barley instructed.

“Got that, Joy?” Fear told Joy.

“I’m on it,” Joy said as he held a button down on the console. “You keep focus. And, you can believe in yourself too.”

“Ian, you mean, Ian,” Fear quickly corrected.

Joy winked. “Right.”

Fear swallowed his nerves, took a deep breath and pushed the left lever forward. Ian took another step. Fear pushed the right lever forward, Ian took a step. They began to alternate, left, right, left, right. Ian began to laugh a little in disbelief, thanks to Joy. But Fear began to laugh in disbelief all because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“You still got me right?” Ian called out to Barley, looking at his steps over the bottomless pit.

“I still got you!” Barley called back, pumping his fist in the air joyfully. “Woo hoo! Ian Lightfoot is fearless!”

“He’s not fearless,” Joy commented, pressing a few more buttons on the console. “He’s got the best Fear, right Fear?”

Fear chuckled, “Yeah, he does.”

Ian couldn’t help but laugh, watching as he stepped over nothing, practically defying gravity. “This is amazing!”

“Yeah, but just keep going!” Barley shouted out to him. “Don’t look back! Just straight ahead!”

Nervous Fear was feeling less of his nerves as he couldn’t help but laugh along with positive Joy. “I can’t believe this is happening, but here we are.”

“Ian’s doing it,” Joy almost sang with a smile, “and so are you!”

Ian had a smile forming on his face as well. “You still got the rope, right?” Ian asked Barley, not looking back.

“Yeah, I got it!” Barley replied.

Giving into her optimistic, playful side, Joy fiddled with a few switches, dials and other controls, making the console yellow glow shine brighter than its purple glow.

“I am not afraid!” Ian declared into the skies above him. “Oh man, I can stay out here all day,” he said, taking his next few steps in a silly, playful manner.

Fear laughed as he said, “Come on, Ian’s not like that.”

“No,” Joy admitted with a shrug and a smile, “But he can be.”

The other emotions watched and laughed along with the sight onscreen. “I could get used to this Iandore,” Disgust thought aloud to Anger.

“Yeah, this one’s kinda cool,” Anger grinned.

Fear kept at the controls, but he was distracted a bit by the very thought of those words. The new Iandore. Heh, guess he’s on the right track.

“Okay, but keep moving!” Barley shouted out to Ian. “We got to see dad, remember?”

“Hey, dad! This last step is for you!” Ian proudly turned around to see his dad as he took that last step on the air. Instead, his eyes caught Barley holding the rope.

Holding the rope.

Holding the untied rope.

Holding the untied rope that’s not tied to Ian!

Ian’s face fell in horror. The magic fizzled from the staff and the console in a soul shattering pop. Ian fell.

“AHH!!” the other emotions shouted in horror.

“NOO!!” Acting faster than he ever could, Fear slammed his hand hard on a button.

Ian quickly grabbed onto the rock wall, thankfully catching his grip on a rock barely jutting out from below the ledge. After finding his hold with his feet, Ian managed to use all his strength to hoist himself onto the ledge. With his life depending on it, Ian climbed onto the top of the cliff, and never stopped until he was standing on solid ground.

Now that he was sure Ian was safe, and had Ian pull the lever to lower the drawbridge, Fear let go of the console, and let himself faint limply onto the ground.

When Fear finally came to, all he could see was the ceiling and hear the sounds of the emotions celebrating. Fear felt himself getting lifted up off the couch and into Joy’s arms. “We did it! We did it! We did it!” Joy cheered.

“We did?” Fear asked, almost blankly, still coming to his senses.

Ian was still staring blankly ahead, clinging to the lever in one hand and his staff in the other, the only movements he made was when he took deep breaths. After driving across the drawbridge, Barley leaped out of the car and raced up to Ian, grabbing him from behind in a big hug and lifting him in the air. “Oh wow, that was amazing!” he exclaimed.

“Oh, it’s Barley!” Joy cheered as the emotions raced back to the console.

Hearing Barley’s voice snapped Fear back to his senses. He shook his head before racing back up to the console. “Hold it!” he ordered, holding out one arm while slamming his other hand down on a button.

“How long… was the rope gone?” Ian asked, still in shock.

“Oh, for like the second half of it,” Barley casually replied.

“WHAT??” Fear shrieked, before slamming his hand down on another button.

“I needed that rope,” Ian stated.

“Oh,” Barley replied. “But did you?”

Fear was about to slam his hand on another button, but paused. His eyes grew wide, having no response for that, because it was so… true. Ian crossed the trust bridge. Ian didn’t have the safety rope. And he didn’t die. Well, he almost did. But, Fear saved him. Fear helped him cross the trust bridge, and he saved him when they lost their faith. Fear couldn’t help it when Ian looked into the bottomless pit, he had to look too. That empty eternal void could have been their grave, Ian’s grave. But, Fear kept Ian safe. And Joy helped him keep confident enough to cross the bridge.

“Hey, Ian.” Fear lost his train of thought when he heard Barley’s voice. Ian turned to his brother, seeing him pointing up at a raven statue over the archway of the drawbridge. “Look, it’s a raven statue. The clue said Raven’s Point.”

Ian nodded, unsure where this was going. “Yeah, the mountain.”

“But maybe it wasn’t the mountain. Maybe it was follow where the raven is pointing.” Following his gut, Barley stepped back until he was standing under the raven, clasped his hands together in a mildly dramatic manner, and lowered his pointed fingers straight ahead. He gave a shout of excitement when he caught sight of another raven statue in a field straight ahead. “Ha ha! It’s another raven!”

Ian was in disbelief, and the emotions jaws unanimously dropped in awe.

“That one could be pointing to another raven,” Barley explained through his excitement, “all the way to the gem!”

“No way,” Disgust whispered awestruck, as Fear leaned forward onto the console, resting his hands on a few random controls.  
Ian thought to himself, “I had us going the wrong way.”

“Well I told ya! My gut knows where to go, don’t ya boy?” Barley laughed to himself as he shook his belly while pretending it was talking back to him.

When Fear finally processed what was happening, he asked the others, “Are we really gonna do this?”

“Do what?” Joy asked non chalantly.

“Follow a more random clue than following a mountain?” Fear asked.

There was a moment of quiet before Sadness spoke up, “He was right about believing in ourselves. Until we didn’t, at least.”

“And he seems to have an idea about what’s going on,” Disgust added, “more than we do.”

Fear turned to Anger. “What about you?”

Anger looked up at Fear, gripped his fists as he looked the emotion down and up, as if he was sizing Fear up more than thinking about Barley. It was enough to make Fear think that Anger’s nod in agreement may be a bit biased.

“Don’t worry, dad,” Barley boasted, tossing the car keys in his hand. “Guinevere will have us to the raven in no time.”

The emotions gave a slight relieving chuckle at Barley, but the moment quickly faded when they heard a sound rapidly approaching the brothers. “Are those sirens?” Joy asked.

“For Feldar’s sake, I hope not,” Fear cursed as that shiver crept back up his spine.

Ian stepped back as a police car sped by and braked to a halt, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. As the dust settled, Colt Bronco squeezed his way out of the small door of the patrol car. Once he was on his hooves, he stared the two brothers down through his mirrored sunglasses. “You boys are in trouble big time,” Colt told them sternly.

“Trouble?” Fear whimpered, his nerve crinkling at the very thought.

Barley quickly explained, “No no no, Colt, we found a spell! If we finish it before sunset, we get to see our father.” To further explain, Barley tore the decoy top half off of Dad’s disguise, showing the real half is just nothing but sentient legs.

Colt bucked back in shock as he gave a startled yelp. “Your mom did say you boys had a strange… family issue going on,” Colt replied, taking off his sunglasses to get a good look at what he’s seeing, “and this is… definitely strange… but no, dangit, I’m not gonna let you upset your mother anymore. Now get back in your vehicle, I’m escorting you home.”

“Home?” Joy gasped. “But that’s the opposite way to the gem!”

“We’ve come so far,” Disgust stated. “We can’t just give up.”

“This isn’t fair!” Anger snapped.

The tears began to swell in Sadness’s eyes. “Oh no. Ian’ll never see dad.”

“No, no way,” Barley replied defiantly.

Fear was in the middle of the group of emotions, all bickering, all complaining, all worried. And, they were all right. Ian’s come so far, in both the journey and as himself. But, what can they do? And when their next road block is an actual cop?

“I’m giving you until the count of three,” Colt warned.

Ian quickly snagged the keys from Barley’s hands. “Okay. We’ll go.”

“Ian?” Barley looked at Ian in quiet disbelief, just as the emotions looked at Fear at the console.

Fear pressed the button on the console again. “He’s a police officer,” he told Barley, then headed back to the van.

The emotions watched as Fear guided Ian into the driver’s seat of the van, Ian turned the key in the ignition and just sat there, looking straight ahead, taking deep quiet breaths. The emotions shouldn’t be surprised that Fear would give up, or even take over without asking the others what they thought. It was Fear placing Ian in the driver’s seat, of an idling Guinevere no less, that had them dumbfounded of what’s going on inside his own head. They noticed as Fear was just standing there, staring ahead at the screen, taking deep quiet breaths. He too had the same vacant, unsure look as Ian had.

Barley climbed into the passenger seat and faced Ian. “What are you doing?”

Joy finally broke the silence. “What are you doing?”

Staring ahead, Ian quietly replied, “I don’t know.”

Staring ahead, Fear quietly told the other emotions, “I don’t know.”

Fear slammed his hand on a large button, Ian slammed his foot hard down on the gas pedal. Like a wild steed, Guinevere went bolting off into the open fields ahead, away from the cops.

The emotions unanimously gasped. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing! Their gazes darted from the screen to the console and back again, almost a dozen times, and they still didn’t believe it! They thought they knew Fear since the day Ian was born, he would never do anything so thoughtless, so reckless, so… why is he doing something so thoughtless and reckless?

“Fear, you’re getting Ian in trouble!” Joy shouted. “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know!” Fear shouted back, terror on his face as he kept at the controls, frantically inputting commands. “I just need to get Ian somewhere safe! He needs to see his dad!”

Joy looked a little amazed as he finally figured out what Fear was doing. “Ooh.”

Barley laughed with excitement as he pumped his fist in the air outside the passenger window. “Ha ha! Ian Lightfoot, breaking the rules!”  
Even with his hands on the wheel and his foot on the gas, Ian still couldn’t believe this. “I can’t believe I’m running from the cops!”  
“No you’re not,” Barley assured him. “You’re running from mom’s boyfriend.”

Ian looked away from the sight of Colt’s patrol car in the rear view mirror… to see half a dozen patrol cars approaching them from up ahead. The emotions unanimously gave a shout of shock.

“Okay, now you’re running from the cops,” a shocked Barley told an equally shocked Ian.

“What do I do? What do I do?” Fear shouted in a panic, trying to focus on the controls.

“Just do what you’re doing!” Joy shouted over Fear’s chaos.

“I don’t know what I’m doing!!” Fear screamed, losing focus.

“Move over!” Anger shoved Fear out of the way and started pressing buttons and turning dials. Outside, Ian turned the wheel sharply to the right, barreling through a rotten wood fence and off the unpaven road completely. Fear was still in a panic as the cops kept their pursuit, appearing to catch up.

“Look! Over there!” Disgust called out over the chaos, pointing at a raven statue in the distance. Together, both Fear and Disgust leaped forward and slammed their hands on the same sequence of controls.

“Hold on!” Ian shouted as he cut the wheel hard, skidding Guinevere over some sharp twists and turns. The Lightfoot brothers held on, everything outside the windshield a blur until Ian finally straightened out. Guinevere was now on a gravel trail up a mountainside, with the cops further away from their tail.

Joy jumped with enough joy that a flurry of yellow particles puffed off of him. “Ha ha! That was amazing! Ian did something amazing!”  
“He did? He did!” Fear cheered with the other emotions.

“Yeah! Way to go, Guinevere!” Ian cheered, patting the dashboard of the van.

The celebration was short lived as the gravel path was blocked by a guard rail and a road closed sign blocking a sharp drop off a cliff. The brothers gasped as Fear grabbed both large levels and pulled back, making Ian slam the breaks hard, causing Guinevere to screech to a halt. Ian backed up and turned Guinevere around, but stopped when they saw the distant cop cars coming up fast. The boys were trapped.

With the excitement and chaos dying fast, Fear managed to snap back into reality, and slowly pull his trembling hands off the controls. “Oh no… no no no no no no no, what have I done?”

Ian climbed out of the van and ran to a stop a few feet ahead of Guinevere. “Oh no, what did I do? I shouldn’t have driven away.”

Barley approached him, wizard staff in hand and leaving their Dad to blindly step out of the van. “No, no that was great!” Barley encouraged Ian. Acting fast, Barley shoved the staff into Ian’s hands. Then, he pointed up to a stack of boulders balancing on a ridge over an expanse of the gravel path between them and the oncoming cops. “Block the road with those boulders.”

“What? How?” Ian asked in shock and confusion.

Barley defiantly replied, “Arcane Lightning.”

“What??” the emotions gasped.

“But you said that’s the hardest spell!” Ian told Barley.

“You are ready,” Barley stated firmly to his brother, looking him dead in the eyes. “The decree states ‘To make lightning strike with ease, one must follow all decrees.’ You have to do everything. Speak from your Heart’s Fire. Trust yourself. Focus. All of it.”

“Are we seriously going to do this?” Fear shouted in fright and shock.

“I got it!” Joy raced back to the console while holding a purple memory orb from the night before. He peeked inside the orb to get a good look of that memory of Ian looking at the Arcane Lightning page for one brief moment. “It says… ‘Voltar Thundasir.’”

Fear gulped. “I guess so,” he whimpered as he gripped the controls.

“Wait.” Joy stood next to Fear and gripped the controls as well. “I trust. You focus.”

Fear stammered, “R-right.”

Ian pointed the staff upward, straight at the pile of boulders. “Voltar Thundasir.” The air between the three prongs sparked, but fizzled just as quickly.

“Heart’s Fire. Anger, get in here!” Joy called out to Anger. Anger cracked his knuckles and took the controls as well.

“Voltar Thundasir.” Again, a crackle, but nothing.

“Everyone!” Joy called out as Disgust and Sadness took their places at the controls. “Ian needs our help!”

“Voltar Thundasir.” The staff crackled and sparked, until a small bolt of lightning connected between the prongs.

Joy perked up when he heard the soft zolting sound continue to grow. “It’s working… everyone hold on!” Around the emotions, little particles of energy began to appear, and the air seemed to gradually fill with electrical static.

Ian was groaning through the struggle. He tried to ignore the sirens and focus on the spell. He tried to ignore his doubts and listen to his Heart’s Fire. He tried to ignore his fears and trust himself.

The third was easier said than done. Fear was seeing the spell working, the console light up with golden light. He saw how everyone was focused on helping Ian. Fear was trying to focus too… but he couldn’t. He knew Ian could do it, he had no doubt in his mind… so it must have been him. It must be him. Fear must be doubting himself! After these short hours, after all he and Ian’s been through, he’s still doubting himself? He’s still doubting Ian? What’s wrong with him??

As Fear was firmly engulfed in his fears, he released his hands from the console and backed away.

Ian pulled away his staff in frustration, before he ended up gasping in frustration and guilt in himself. “I can’t… I can’t do it…”

The emotions looked up from the console and looked back at Fear, who fell to his knees on the floor. Joy was the first to run to him. “Fear!” Joy slid to a stop and knelt down next to Fear. “Fear, what’s wrong?”

Fear was a shaking, trembling mess. Purple particles were shivering off his form as he tucked his hands under his arms. “I can’t… I can’t… I can’t…” was all he could mumble as his nerve unculred and drooped down his back.

“He’s doing it again,” Anger snarled. “I knew this would happen!”

“We were doing so good,” Disgust pouted, stomping his foot into the ground.

“Guys, not now,” Joy almost whispered to Anger and Disgust before going back to comforting Fear. “Come on Fear, you can do this. Ian needs you.”

“I know… I know… I just… I just…”

Sadness wiped a tear from his eye before he looked up from the emotions and noticed Dad Island lit up.

“I’m not going to see you, dad,” Ian whispered, tears beginning to pool in his eyes as he lowered his head in shame. “And it’s all my fault.”  
Sadness approached the console, feeling drawn by Ian’s depression. He placed a hand on the console, just the touch of a button caused a cascade of a couple of blue memory orbs into Ian’s short term memory. But the familiar sound of an engine whinnying back to life caused Sadness to pull his hand back, as well as catch the attention of the other emotions.

Ian looked up and turned back, seeing Barley in the driver’s seat of Guinevere. “What are you doing?” he asked softly.

Barley said not a word. He quietly plugged in an old cassette tape into the dashboard, turned up the volume, and gave the dashboard one last loving brush of his hand. As the valorious music played on, Barley left the car in park, picked up a stone and placed it on the gas pedal. Guinevere roared with energy, like a stallion ready to escape its pen, as Barley adjusted the steering wheel, aiming his mighty steed at just the right target. He put the van in drive, and gave Guinevere one last pat on the rear bumper as she drove straight forward.

The emotions gathered around the console in a hushed awe, their eyes as wide as Ian’s, as they saw Guinevere figuratively gallop to her destiny. Then literally as her rear tire popped into a bumpy flat, but she still kept going. Guinevere shot over a ramp like rock, causing her to soar and slam headlong into the pile of boulders. In one avalanche, Guinevere and the boulders fell, blocking the road, blocking the cops. Guinevere performed her heroic duty, but was buried under the pile of boulders in her final task.

Headquarters was so silent you could hear a particle flutter softly down to the floor. The emotions were still processing the valiant deed Barley had done, and they still couldn’t believe it.

“Barley just did that?” Joy softly asked.

Fear quietly asked, “Why would he do that?”

Barley solemnly picked up a small gem shaped tail light that managed to fall off Guinevere in her sacrificial quest. All Ian could do was stand and watch.

Barley took a deep exhale. “It was just a beat up old van,” Barley quietly responded to Ian’s unspoken question. He tucked the last remnant of his mighty steed into his vest pocket. “Come on. We gotta go.”

With Barley leading Dad by the leash, and Ian carrying his staff, the two climbed down the rocky cliffside, crossed the grassy field towards the raven statue, and continued their journey on foot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "valorious" is not a word, but it should be


	10. Wandering Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fear has a little discussion with each of the emotions, and Ian and Barley have a little conversation during their quest as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, thank you guys for hold on. I apologize for the wait. Not only life stuff, but I hit a bit of a wall. I tried to push through it, and it shows in the first part. So while I don't think my writing is that strong in the first part, it DOES get better a third of the way. So hold on, thank you for waiting, and, let's do this.

Joy was at the controls, with Disgust standing right beside him. They looked up at the screen at the wide expanse of field in front of Ian, Barley and their dad, as the three of them trekked their way to the next raven statue. Barley pointed the direction the raven pointed, and the three were on their way.

Fear was looking down at his watch, even though their journey began a half hour ago. Still, there was little time with Dad, once they fully resurrect him, that is. Wait, is resurrect the right word? And what if they don’t? What if they don’t succeed? Fear broke his pacing and walked up to the window, gazing across towards Dad Island. No… no, he has to succeed. For Ian. He promised Ian.

A small sniffle broke the silence, causing Fear to jump when he realized it wasn’t him. He darted his gaze around until he caught Sadness sitting behind the couch. In his hands was a blue memory orb, one he kept playing and replaying as he quietly watched. Curiously, Fear approached cautiously, but still felt timid enough to ask, “C-can I sit here?”

Sadness nodded and scooted over, letting Fear sit down. As Fear took his seat, he noticed the image replaying in the memory orb. The memory of Guinevere crashing into the cliff, followed by being buried under the rocks.

Fear let the memory play a few more times, as if the thought still hasn’t sunk into his own head. How could it? He couldn’t believe it actually happened. “Why would Barley do that?” Fear finally spoke up. “He loved that van.”

Sadness let the memory play once more before replying. “He loves Ian.”

“Yeah, b-but he loved that van,” Fear said. “It’s all he ever talked about.”

“Barley talks about a lot of things,” Sadness responded. “Magic, history… Ian… now Ian is magical… and they’re trying to bring back their dad… who was history… and Barley gave up something to make it happen. He didn’t want it to be Ian’s fault that they never saw their dad. He sacrificed Guinevere so they could see their dad…” Sadness’s sniffle turned into a fountain of tears. “It’s just so sad!” he bawled as he flopped onto the floor, letting the memory roll away.

Fear instinctively scrambled to catch the memory before it rolled too far away. As he carried it back to short term memory, he noticed a smudge of purple on the orb. Makes sense, Ian would be shocked to see Barley sacrifice Guinevere. But, he didn’t remember controlling the console at the time. Is he at the controls without even knowing it? He thought he was getting better at this.

“Oh! Looks like we got another raven,” Joy commented, as she allowed Ian to follow Barley that direction.

While quickly placing the memory back on the shelf, Fear went to the console to check up on things.

\---

Sadness was drawn to the console soon as he heard the rain. Outside, the weather changed to a downpour, soaking the two brothers as they made their way through the tall grass. Disgust was already at the console, checking on Ian, as well as checking to see if his hair’s okay. Feeling their trek was getting long and boring, Joy was busying himself organizing a box of daydreams, prepping some things to keep Ian occupied as he hiked along in the waist high weeds.

Joy looked up from his work as he felt a tap on his shoulder. “Oh! Hey, Fear. What’s up?” he asked.

Fear backed away nervously, tucking his hands under his arms. “Hey,” he asked innocently, “can we talk?”

“Sure, real quick.” Joy placed the box of daydreams aside and followed Fear away from the console.

“Yeah, real quick.” Fear led Joy to the wall of short term memories before he began to ask, “So, h-have you noticed anything… different?”

“With Ian?” Joy asked. “Well, he has magic powers, for one.”

“Not with Ian. With… me,” Fear quietly admitted.

Joy chuckled. “Oh my, coworker giving the boss a performance review.” Fear exhaled a chuckle, still rather nervous. “I’ve noticed you’re trying. You jump back onto the console, but sometimes you step back and let us help. We’ve all been noticing. Sadness, Disgust.”

“Even Anger?” Fear asked.

Joy faked a smile. “Uh, sure.”

Fear’s face fell. Joy may butter up the truth, but he’s not a good liar. “Guess I can’t change everything.”

“Nah,” Joy shrugged off. “Anger’s stubborn, you know that.”

“Well Sadness and Disgust can tell I’m trying, and so can you,” Fear said, getting worked up. “What do I gotta do to make him see?”

“I dunno,” Joy thought aloud. “Why don’t you go ask him?”

Fear’s eyes grew wide, his nerve curled up at the thought. “Are you crazy? He’ll kill me!”

“Nah, he won’t kill you,” Joy replied. “Hurt you, maybe.”

“That’s just as bad,” Fear replied in fright. “I can’t talk to him.”

“Then how are you gonna change anything without doing anything?” Joy asked.

Fear was about to respond, but stopped. He closed his mouth, unsure how to respond to that.

“We got another raven coming up,” Disgust reported.

Joy’s face lit up. “We’re on the right track! I gotta get back to work, why don’t you at least think about it? We’ll call you if Ian needs to feel scared. I mean, you know rain can become storms like that.”

Fear gasped. “You’re right. And Ian’s walking around with a wooden lightning rod! I gotta-“ Fear immediately ran to the console, but tripped over the box of daydreams Joy placed aside. Sadness and Disgust looked over at Fear, Sadness giving a sigh as Disgust rubbed his sore head.

“Oh, look what happened!” Joy laughed off as he helped Fear pick up the daydreams. Meanwhile, in the back, Anger looked up from the floor, glared daggers at Fear, and stomped away from the core memory holder nestled into the ground.

\----

The sun was so high that it was blinding poor Ian as he looked up, wondering why it was so hot all of a sudden. “Strange weather we’re having,” Joy commented as he changed the memory to play another Puddle of Mush song that Ian likes.

Fear was pacing back and forth, worrying the trek was going too long. He looked down at his watch. Six more hours. Six more hours? They’re running out of time! His pacing was stopped as he fell forward onto a table.

“Ugh! Excuse you!” Disgust spat, finishing picking up the star atlases as he glared at Fear.

“My bad,” Fear replied, winded as the side of the table slammed into his stomach. He almost had to peel himself off the table when he caught a bunch of random papers scattered across the table, and a few fluttering in the air from his impact. Trying to help, Fear plucked a few papers from the air, which made Disgust try to snag them from his hands. Noticing, and now curious, Fear uncrumpled a piece that was in his hand. The paper had a bunch of random doodles, most noticeably a drawing of Ian in a wizard robe and holding his staff high. He looked over the table, especially noticing a few drawings of Disgust himself with the wizard’s staff. Fear smiled, taken aback by the cute and sudden surprise. “Disgust.”

Disgust walked off, atlases in hand and a smug pout on his face. “Yeah? So?” he asked defensively.

“No no, this is just surprising,” Fear explained, following Disgust to the book shelves. “I expect Joy to like this magic stuff, maybe Sadness. But, you?”

“So I like magic, big deal?” Disgust spat, shoving the books back on the shelves. “It’s actually not lame. Barley just makes it look and sound lame. Magic is actually cool, and Ian having the gift finally makes him cool.”

“You don’t think Ian is cool?” Fear asked.

“Yeah, I mean no, I mean-“ Disgust groaned in frustration. “We do things we think makes Ian cool. Chess. Space. Math. Yes, they’re cool. But guess what? Not cool enough to have friends.”

“Ian has friends,” Fear replied, still surprised to hear Disgust say these things.

“Yeah, well, not enough that it matters,” Disgust huffed before turning to walk away, arms crossed defiantly.

Fear had to think fast, Disgust was mad and trying to end the conversation. But Disgust likes magic, and Ian can do magic, and if magic is cool… “Wait!” Fear called out, running to stop Disgust from storming off. “What if, next time Ian has to do magic, you try to do it?”  
Disgust narrowed his eyes and gave a wry smirk. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am,” Fear replied. “You said magic is cool, and you want to do magic. So you can help Ian do magic next time.”

Disgust’s face lit up when he realized Fear wasn’t kidding. “You mean it? Yes! I mean, yeah, way cool of you,” Disgust corrected himself, stopping from jumping up and down, then got out a comb and mirror to fix his hair.

Fear gave a smile that was more relieved than anxious. “Yeah, what are friends for?”

“Hmph. That makes two of us. And by two I mean not him.” Disgust motioned to Joy, watching Ian make another turn at another raven statue.

Fear was both confused and nervous. “H-him?”

“Uh, yeah? He was at the controls when Ian lied,” Disgust explained.

“B-but he likes Barley the most out of all of us,” Fear explained. “And the Family core memory is an all yellow happy memory.”  
“Yeah? Doesn’t that make it more suspicious?” Disgust simply walked away, wanting nothing more to do with Joy.

That left Fear alone, anxious all over again. He had nothing to be suspicious about Joy, but what if that should make him suspicious? But, why would Joy have Ian lie? And should he trust Joy? Wait, Joy knows all about Fear’s issues of taking over! Well, everyone knows, but Joy knows the most about it. Should he still trust Joy with that, or would Joy use it against him? And if so, for what?

Just then, the song in the memory began to replay. “Okay, let’s try another one,” Joy said aloud as he recalled another memory. The next memory that played was a happy memory playing an all too familiar and all too catchy gum jingle.

Fear rolled his eyes as all of Headquarters groaned. “This again?”

\----

Joy and Disgust were at the controls, guiding Ian towards the next raven. Sadness was lying down on the couch, the same couch Fear was sitting behind, looking at Anger. Anger was sitting against a wall reading a science textbook. Fear was sitting there, finger tapping, lip quivering, the words Joy told him repeating through his little mind. Talk to Anger. Talk to Anger? Why can’t he talk to Anger? He had a number of reasons why not, Anger hurting or scaring him being on the top of that list. And now, now Joy could be the liar, using Fear? Could Joy be encouraging Fear to talk to Anger as part of his plan? And what plan?? But only one thing buzzing around in his head right now made sense: how is he going to change anything without doing anything?

Swallowing that knot in his throat back down to his stomach, Fear got up and started to approach Anger. Quietly, slowly, as if approaching a wild animal that was sleeping but could jump and bite at any moment. The closer he got, the more his arms trembled, causing Fear to grip his sides to still them. When Fear was just a few steps close, his quiet stammering voice whispered audibly, “H-hey Anger.”

Anger’s eyes snapped up from the book, glaring at Fear.

That was enough to cause Fear to instantly run around the corner a few feet away from Anger. Fear sat down in a little ball by the corner. He couldn’t leave, then his attempt to talk to Anger would be over. Though everything in Fear would want that ever so much.

A few moments of silence passed. Not exactly silent, as Anger could hear the deep breathing of the fearful Fear round the corner, quick at first, but then slowed, but still frightened. Anger tried to ignore it, digging himself deeper into his book. But a few minutes of deep breathing passed, Anger rolled his eyes, realizing Fear wasn’t going away. “What do you want?”

Fear finally piped up from behind the corner. “N-nothing.”

Anger grumbled as he lowered his book. “You’re here. You want something. Talk.”

Fear’s mind went blank. He didn’t rehearse anything, just had all the random questions in his head. But when the opportunity came for Anger to actually listen, his mind became an empty slate. Fear tucked his hands under his arms, trying to jog his memory. “D-d-do you like me?”

“No.” Anger said bluntly.

“I-I mean,” Fear stammered, “d-d-do you notice any changes?”

“In what?” Anger asked flatly.

“I-In me?”

“No.”

That caused Fear to clam up for a moment. His body was still, he felt the familiar chill run down his spine.

“We done?” Anger asked sharply.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Joy, Sadness and Disgust notice that I’m trying to do better,” Fear clarified. “Why not you?”

“Cause you’re not getting any better,” Anger spat. “You’re still the same, annoying, meddling, aggravating Fear from yesterday.”

“B-but I’m trying to step back, right?” Fear asked. “I’m trying to control myself? I’m giving you guys a chance on the console?”

Anger snorted. “You’re still hogging the controls! You still jump at any chance to make Ian scared!”

“But I’m doing in less, right?”

“But you’re still doing it!”

“I can’t change overnight, Anger!” Fear immediately covered his mouth. He let a few moments pass before nervously continuing, “I’m not going to change overnight, but I can at least do better every day… right?”

No response.

“I mean, that sounds fair, right?” Fear asked again. “You tell me, it’s your job to make sure things are fair.”

Silence.

The quiet was tearing Fear apart. “Well, answer me!” he practically pleaded to the corner, but not bearing to look around it. “What do you want from me?”

A long strain of silence passed before Fear curled his knees up into his chest in defeat. He lowered his head into his arms perched atop his knees and gave a sigh, in both surrender and relief. When he finally looked up, he jumped back when he saw Anger’s feet, then his startled gaze shot up to Anger, glaring down at him.

“I want to know why you’re the emotion who gets to wear that sweater,” Anger almost demanded.

Fear leaned away from Anger’s judgmental stare and pointing finger. The purple emotion clung to his sides, specifically to his sweater, his fingers pressing in deep. Behind his frightened eyes, Fear could recall those years ago, when Ian was eleven and found dad’s old college sweatshirt in one of the boxes mom brought downstairs when she was cleaning out the attic. Once realizing it was his dad’s sweatshirt, Ian immediately claimed it, wanting to keep it. Days later, during one of the train of thought’s visits to Headquarters, Fear found amongst the cargo an exact replica of dad’s sweatshirt, and claimed it with little hesitation. At that current moment, while looking up at Anger, he felt terrified of what Anger was implying, and horrified at what Anger would do to his sweatshirt.

“Hey guys,” Disgust called out from the console, “this raven statue looks different from the others.”

That broke the moment, and Fear scrambled to the console, with Anger walking right behind him. As Anger joined the others, Fear squinted as he took a good look at the raven statue on screen. “It’s pointing down,” he commented, remembering that all the other raven statues were pointing left or right.

“Are we supposed to dig?” Joy thought aloud.

Ian and Barley approached the statue and knelt down to investigate the ground it pointed to. Right below the pointing beak was a bronze disc, almost like a large metal lid covering an entrance. Barley immediately began to try and move the disc, barely getting it to budge, as Ian stared down at the dusty reflection.

Peering through the ages of dust, Fear thought he saw something. He zipped over to the shelves of idea bulbs, grabbed one in particular, zipped back to the console and plugged the bulb into the holder.

“Wait,” Ian whispered, placing his hand on Barley’s shoulder in order to stop him. Ian then wiped away the dust with his hand, in order to clear the reflection in the bronze plate. He leaned a bit one way, in order to get a view of the raven’s beak pointing at a particular carving on the raven’s chest. Curiously, Ian stood up and investigated the carving, only to discover that it was a small slate that easily popped out of the statue once it was pushed inward.

As the slate plopped into Ian’s hand, Barley’s face lit up with surprise and pride. “Oh. See that dad? The apprentice has become the master.”

“Wow,” Joy said, impressed.

“Great call there, Fear,” Disgust congratulated.

Anger simply looked up at Fear suspiciously and asked, “How’d you know that would work?”

“I didn’t,” Fear replied, just as surprised as everyone else.

The brothers investigated the slate, finding carvings on one side. Deciphering the engraving of three wavy lines and an x, Barley thought aloud, “Looks like water.” As if the word water was the magic word, the elf brothers finally caught the sound of a creek nearby.

“Wow, that was lucky,” Joy told the others.

“So, what’s the x mean?” Ian asked.

“On a quest, the x only means one thing,” Barley explained. “We go to the end of the water, and we find that Phoenix gem.”

The emotions were relieved that their quest is almost over, as did Fear, even if he had to look down at his watch. Only six more hours left.  
Led with anticipation, thanks to his Joy, Ian went right into the cavern, Barley and Dad right behind him. They didn’t venture far into the cave before the daylight was nearly gone. If they traveled further into the cave, they would be walking into darkness. Fear was already trembling at the thought. He was not scared of the dark, but what could be hiding in the dark.

“Fire spell,” Barley said aloud.

Ian turned, as if Barley just said something out of nowhere. “Huh?”

Barley picked up a stick off the rocky ground, the stick look like it was made to be a torch for this very moment. “Just say, ‘flame infernar.’

Fear reached for the controls, but his nerve perked up a bit as he remembered. “Disgust.” Fear stepped back and turned to Disgust.

Disgust was almost surprised. “You mean me?”

“You wanna try this magic thing,” Fear said, actually taking a step back from the console. “Here’s your chance.”

Disgust looked Fear up and down, seeing if this was some sort of joke. He then approached the console, placed his hands on the controls as he exhaled to calm himself. Disgust wanted to do magic, but he also knows from past experiences this is serious stuff. “Okay, here goes…”

Ian exhaled as he picked up his staff. He held it in front of himself and said the phrase. “Flame infernar.” Almost immediately, a few sparks appeared from around the prongs of the staff, swirled into the air within the prongs, and collected into a blue ball of magic that immediately sparked into a burning flame atop the staff.

Fear smiled and gave a thumbs up. “Great job, Disgust.”

“That’s the way,” Joy cheered.

Disgust brushed some of his curly bangs from his face with a smug smirk on his face. “Yeah, you’re welcome.”

After being in awe of seeing the spell in action, Barley lit the torch with the flame, the fire from the staff transferring over to the top of the torch. As Ian took the torch in hand, the flame lit the area in front of them, revealing some startled, feral unicorns, giving the brothers a threatening hiss.

“EVASIVE ACTION!!” Fear shouted as he dove onto the console.

Ian and Barley both ducked, with Barley clinging to Dad in order to protect him, as the unicorns leaped over them and ran out of the cave. After a brief beat, the two elves opened their eyes, saw that the coast is clear, then exchanged glances at each other, as if seeing if they’re both okay, before pressing onward into the caverns.

“Wow, nice one Fear,” Joy said, helping Fear off the console.

“Yeah, great job. I’m dead serious,” Disgust added, even if his tone still had a bit of snark to it, despite his genuine smile.

Fear brushed the wrinkles out of his sweater as he stood. “Oh, heh, thanks guys,” he said, a nervous tone to his grin.

The two elves trekked further into the cave, the torch lighting the way. Not much time passed, but eventually Barley would pass the time whistling a familiar tune and munching on a bag of cheese curls. Barley even shared a few curls with his brother, all while Ian kept a close watch on what could be up ahead in their journey. The boys briefly paused for a moment when the torch lit up an ancient mural engraved into the stone wall. The grand mural was at least twenty stories both tall and wide, and depicted an elf wizard on a hillside, displaying his magic for a surrounding crowd of centaurs, mermaids and sprites.

“Oooh,” the emotions awed in unison, even Anger was amazed at the vision from the past.

After the brothers finished gazing at the glory of the engraved mural, Ian looked ahead to see the underground stream widen into a small river. Fear’s eyes widened as it appeared this river just kept going on forever. “Oh no, guys… guys, this isn’t good…”

Ian sighed in defeat. “This water could go on for miles,” Ian commented, looking down at his watch, displaying that they only had five hours until sunset. “We don’t have that kind of time.”

Barley turned to his brother as he thought aloud, “If we had something to float on, we could use a velocity spell on it, fly down the tunnel like a magic jet ski.”

Disgust blinked twice in surprise. “Did he just say something smart?”

“I think he did,” Sadness confirmed softly.

“Float on what?” Anger asked with a growl. “There’s nothing here but rocks.”

Fear peered at the screen and admitted, “Anger’s right.”

“There’s not much to float on,” Ian commented, looking around where he stood on the stone ground.

“Remember, on a quest, you’ve got to use what you got,” Barley said, before reaching into his bag of cheese curls. He paused, looking down at the tiny, light, fluffy cheese snack with a wild idea that just might work. “Growth spell!” he exclaimed, holding up the cheese curl triumphantly.

The emotions stepped back. “Growth spell?”

Ian was equally puzzled. “Growth spell?”

“We grow the cheese curl and use it like a cheese boat!” Barley explained excitedly.

Joy jumped up and down with just as much excitement with Barley. “Love it!”

“No way,” Disgust said firmly. “Ian is not climbing onto a puffy cheese product.”

“We don’t really have any other options,” Sadness told Disgust, sadly.

“We’re going to get cheese powder all over Ian,” Disgust complained. “What if it gets in his hair?”

“We’ll wash it out in the river,” Fear commented.

Disgust looked at Fear. “You’re seriously on board with this?”

“Not really,” Fear replied, “but what choice do we have?” Fear placed his hands on the console, but instead of pressing in commands, he turns to Disgust and asks, “Wanna help me focus?”

Disgust raised an eyebrow at Fear, but after a brief moment, stepped up next to him at the console.

“Magnora gantuan!” Ian exclaimed, his wizard staff pointed at the small cheese curl placed on the ground a few feet away. Within seconds, a bright aura of light shot out of the staff, enveloped the tiny cheese curl, grew into a large aura and disappeared, leaving behind a large cheese curl about fifteen feet long. Barley cheered as he pushed the boat into the water, jumping with joy in the shallow edge of the stream as the cheese curl remained afloat. Ian laughed as he realized how ridiculous it looked, but how amazed that it worked! The two boys hopped aboard before the giant cheese curl boat could float away, Dad in Barley’s care and Ian holding his staff and the torch.

“Now say, ‘accelior!’” Barley told Ian, adding valiant emphasis on the magic phrase.

“Oh, right, the velocity spell!” Joy said, reaching over and pressing a button or two on the console.

Ian pointed the wizard staff at the cheese puff and exclaimed, “Accelior!” The giant cheese snack glistened with magic sparkling light before shooting off like a jet ski going at least forty five miles an hour.

“Woo hoo! Way to go, Joy!” Fear exclaimed.

Joy bowed playfully. “Thank you. Thank you.”

Disgust stepped in and took over the console for just a moment, an amused and interested smirk on his face. Curiously, Fear stopped celebrating and asked, “Uhh, what are you doing?”

“This is actually kind of cool,” Ian commented as he sat down on the cheese curl boat with his brother. “So, what other spells do you know?”

“Oh, brace yourself, young mage,” Barley boasted, though mostly it was because of his playful acting. “I know all there is to know of magic.”

Joy bounced on his heels in excitement as the other emotions gathered around. Especially Fear, with wonder and timidness in his eye. New spells? More magic? Are they ready for this? Is Ian ready for this?

Ready or not, it did help the time fly. Barley teaching Ian the proper stance, magic enhancers, tales of wizards and magic artifacts. But finally, he got to the good stuff as he taught Ian a new spell: a fireworks spell. Barley explained that this was a spell for celebration, especially to signal a victory in a quest or battle.

“This will be the first thing dad sees when he fully returns,” Barley said with a big smile.

“I like that idea!” Fear said, the other emotions agreeing as Fear wrote the note down in his little notebook.

Ian stood at the back of the boat, facing away into the empty caverns behind them, pointing his staff outward. “Boombastia!” he said proudly, but only a fizzle of sparks spurt out of the end of the staff.

“Huh? What happened?” Joy asked confused.

“I dunno, did we say it right?” Fear asked.

Barley quickly corrected Ian’s posture by adjusting his elbow. “Remember,” he reminded him with a cheeky tone.

“Of course, the stance.” Disgust pressed a few buttons on the console as Joy reentered the command.

“Boombastia!” Ian exclaimed again. This time the staff shot out a shot of magic that sprung forth like a rocket, bursting into a flurry like an exploding firework lighting up the darkness behind them.

“Woo hoo hoo!” Fear cheered with the other emotions as they celebrated behind the console, cooling from sparkling with the same colored magic as the firework spell. Fear laughed as he caught Joy and reminded him, “oh, careful,” as Joy had Ian jumping for joy on the giant cheese curl.

After their quick celebration, Barley picked up a handful of cheese puff off the top of the boat. “Think fast!” he exclaimed, throwing the ball of cheese powder and processed puff at Ian.

“Look out!” Fear shouted as he leaped forward and slammed his hand on a button.

“Aloft elevar!” Ian proclaimed, catching the orange puff in midair with the levitation’s spell aura. With a flick of his wrists, Ian had the ball flying right back at Barley.

“Nice catch, Fear!” Joy cheered.

“Now that’s good reflexes,” Disgust smirked.

Anger crossed his arms and pouted, looking away from Fear as he grumbled in admittance, “Okay, that was pretty cool.”  
Fear gave a nervous chuckle before looking back at the screen, catching sight of Barley munching away on a few handfuls of cheese puff he carved out of their boat.

“Careful how much boat you’re eating there,” Ian chuckled as he sat down beside Barley, “we still got to make it to the end of the tunnel.”  
Barley replied with a mouth full of cheese puff, “Good point,” before licking his orange powder covered fingertips clean.

The emotions began to calm down from their celebrating for Ian as they watched Ian’s gaze shift from Barley to their dad sitting on the other side of the cheese puff boat. Ian watched as their Dad silently sat there, brushing one leg against the other lazily, while his non sentient top half just sat there atop his waist. The emotions could hear Dad Island whir to life behind them as Ian thought aloud in wonder “I can’t believe I am this close to actually talking to dad.”

“You know what I’m gonna ask him?” Barley admitted with a grin. “If he ever gave himself a wizard name.”

Ian exhaled a laugh as he asked, “A what?”

“Cause he was into magic,” Barley explained. “A lot of wizards have cool name. Alora the Majestic. Birdar the Fanciful.”

The emotions gave a chuckle, but Fear’s moment was interrupted as he felt something brush up against his back pocket. With a yelp, he turned to catch Disgust ripping out a blank sheet of paper from the back of his notebook, as well as snagging his pen. “I’m gonna need these,” Disgust commented with a smug grin.

Fear grumbled as he snagged his notebook and pen right back and placed them back in his back pocket. Disgust gave a huff right back before stomping off to his own locker to fetch a pen.

Barley added offhandedly, “Ah, it’s just going to be nice to have more than, you know, four memories of him.”

The emotions paused, even Disgust looked over at the screen and returned back to the console. “Did he say four?” Fear asked aloud.

“Nah, I’m sure he said three,” Joy brushed off non chalantly.

“Uh three,” Ian corrected. “You only have three memories.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah,” Barley replied, acting cooly, but his eyes giving away that he’s hiding something.

Sadness caught that. “Hey, guys? I think something’s wrong.” Behind them, Dad Island chimed as it grew brighter.

Ian’s eyes grew wide. “Barley, you have another memory of dad you haven’t told me?”

“Oh, it’s just,” Barley explained, growing a little quieter with every other word, “not one of my favorites.”

That piqued the emotions interest, as well as Ian’s. “What do you mean?” Ian asked.

Barley exhaled a sigh before solemnly removing his beanie. He held the brim of his beanie in his hands before he mustered up the courage to quietly begin. “When dad was sick, I was supposed to go in and… say goodbye to him. But, he was hooked up to all these tubes, and… he didn’t look like himself. And, I got scared… and I didn’t go in.”

Ian was left wide eyed. Speechless. Mainly because his emotions were speechless. They were not expecting that. They were expecting another amazing story about Dad, but instead… they got one shockingly depressing story about Barley. Sadness gave a loud sniffle and wiped his tears with the collar of his red flannel shirt, but was immediately quiet when Barley finished his story with one final note.

“That’s when I decided I was never going to be scared ever again.”

Fear flinched a bit, as that hit him hard. He hardly ever saw Barley scared, and knew Barley never to be scared. But, that’s what did it? And, what of his Fear? His Fear reacted correctly, right? Protecting his Barley from something scary, right? But, no. It was a mistake. His Fear protected Barley from something scary… but it cost him saying goodbye to his dad. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what his Fear must have felt for making such a grave mistake… because it made Fear terrified if he could, or had, made such a mistake.

Before Fear could dwell any further, Barley cleared his throat. “Looks like we’re coming up on something,” he said, changing the subject to the quest as he put his beanie back on.

As Ian’s attention shifted back to the quest, he looked around to find their boat had slowed to a gentle float, and no longer in a cavern, but a large catacomb lined with statues of revered wizards of yore. The boat drifted to a stop on the gravel shore, ahead was a stone archway into a mysterious dungeon.

Barley stared the unwelcoming entrance down. “The final gauntlet.”

Fear gulped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had no idea how strong and significant Barley's fourth memory would be to Ian's actual emotions until I realized Fear, pretty much our main character in the Inside Out part of this story, hears Barley say that he decided not to be scared ever again. I did not plan that. I did plan that Ian's main character would be Fear, but I did not plan that Fear would have to hear that and react to it after what he's been through so far in this story. When stuff like that just happens, stuff you the writer did not plan, it's just amazing.


	11. The Gauntlet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The emotions help Ian through the gauntlet, but the trials don't end there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally reached the part of the story that I couldn't wait to write. I have been waiting for this part since I thought up the idea of Inside Onward. So, of course it took me forever to get to it! But, it's here! And, I hope it's worth the wait. Oh, and if you love drama, buckle up.

Ian took up his staff, Barley took the leash, and both cautiously stepped into the grand doorway into the dungeon. Dad blindly followed along, being led by the leash.

Things were quiet. Too quiet. So quiet you can almost hear the particles shifting within the emotions’ bodies. Fear watched as the walls around Ian and Barley seem to grow closer and closer. The grand archway they walked under led into a tightly cramped, dark corridor. The only thing lighting the way is the torch Barley was holding, and the faint, ominous glow coming from the barred holes lining the base of the walls. The arched gaps seemed to be the only generous thing in the threatening hall made of stone, releasing into the darkness a faint blue aura, as well as the faint sound of stilled water. The emotions glanced around cautiously as the age, decay and debris of the dungeon, Disgust giving a cringe when he spotted a beetle crawling over a skeleton and into the skull’s eye socket.

Distracting his anxieties with something, Fear looked down at his watch, just as Ian looked down at his watch. Less than two hours left.

“The Phoenix Gem is just on the other side,” Barley whispered. “Careful, there could be booby traps.”

Fear shivered. “Booby… traps?”

“This place is over a thousand years old,” Ian whispered back, glancing around the dark, confined corridor. “There’s no way there could be-“

SLAM!!

A loud noise shuttered through the hall as a large blade shot horizontally through the dungeon. It thankfully avoided the brothers, who were on opposite sides following the stone walls, but it knocked the top half of Dad’s disguise clean off, leaving him a pair of legs standing on an activated cobblestone on the floor. The brothers gasped, followed by the emotions.

And with a small puff of air, the torch was snuffed out.

Fear panicked. “What do we do? What do we do? We can’t see!”

“We see that, Fear,” Anger snapped. “The lights are still on in Headquarters.”

“But there’s no light in the catacomb,” Sadness sighed. “How are we gonna get Ian and Barley through?”

Joy’s face lit up as something in the ceiling caught her attention. “Oh look, there’s some light,” she said as she pointed to the green light ominously filtering into the dungeon.

The brothers looked up as the trap door in the ceiling gradually opened, slowly revealing the glowing green being. Ian was unsure of what it was, but his face and the emotions face slowly fell as they caught sight of the fear taking over Barley.

“Oh no,” Barley gasped. “It can’t be…”

The trap door fully opened, releasing the giant green cube. The cube plopped down onto the stone floor, with a gushy thump that caused Disgust to reel back and gag.

“A gelatinous cube!!” Barley shrieked with fright.

“They’re real??” the emotions yelped in unison.

Still frozen in place in both shock and confusion, Ian caught the cube slowly shift towards them. The top half of Dad’s disguise was sucked into the gelatinous square blob, and immediately dissolved into nothingness, with a fierce, hungered fizzle. The emotions stepped back in horror. “It ate Dad!!” four of them exclaimed as Disgust ran off to wretch.

Barley looked up as he heard a groan of stone scraping against stone. Far ahead at the end of the corridor, a stone slab began to slowly close from the ceiling downward. “Run!!” Barley shouted.

“No crap!” Anger shouted.

“Wait!” Fear said, stopping Disgust as he raced back to grab the controls.

“Wait!” Ian stopped Barley by blocking him with his staff. “It’s a puzzle!” Ian explained, looking down at the cobblestone floor, each one with a different, mysterious symbol. “We have to figure it out or-“

Barley interrupted. “No time! Grab a shield!”

“What shield?” Disgust saw Barley pick up an old shield off the floor, plucked from an old skeleton. “Nuh uh, no way!” Disgust protested, about to throw up again.

“We have no choice!” Fear grabbed the controls. 

Ian grabbed a shield off the ground, an arm of a skeleton coming along with it. “Ew ew ew ew,” Disgust gagged, pressing some buttons, causing Ian to close his eyes and clench in disgust as he brushed the arm off the handle of the shield.

The brothers held the shields at their sides towards the walls, with their Dad huddled between them. They picked up their dad by the belt and, with one adrenaline filled scream, raced down the corridor. With every step, traps were sprung. Arrows and spears were flying from left to right, right to left, blades came falling from the ceiling, missing the three of them by mere inches. It was pure utter chaos!

“I got ya! I got ya!” Joy exclaimed, helping at the controls as he saw Fear falling apart at the seams. Losing control, Fear stepped back, being replaced by Anger as Fear placed his hands under his arms and gasped for breath.

“That’s the most frightening thing Ian’s ever done,” Fear gasped.

And it wasn’t over yet.

The brothers stopped sharply at a pit, causing Barley to drop his shield and watch it skewer onto the spikes below. Fear watched as Ian looked up, the stone door ahead halfway closed, and closing teasingly slower. The pit between them and the door was too far to jump, but maybe…

Fear ran to the shelves, grabbed an idea bulb, ran back and shoved it into the idea bulb holder on the console.

Ian grabbed his staff and looked towards his brother. “Jump!”

Barley was shocked at such an order. “What?”

“What?” the emotions asked, staring wide eyed at Fear, taking his place at the console.

“Trust me!” Ian told Barley.

With a second guessing glance, Barley took a few steps back, then gave a running jump into the air. He gave a loud shout as he started to fall into the pit. 

Acting fast, Ian aimed his staff downward towards Barley. “Aloft elevar!”

Barley felt himself halt in midair, causing him to peek from under his forearms, and see himself floating in midair, enveloped in a magical aura. Barley gave a laugh, realizing Ian just saved his life, and got them a way across the pit!

“Wow,” Disgust gasped.

“Way to go Fear!” Joy cheered.

Anger chuckled as he watched Ian lead his Dad over the pit, using Barley like a bridge. “Heh, nice,” he commented, watching Ian unknowingly place his foot against Barley’s cheek for a second.

Just as he made it over the pit, Ian tripped and fell. Dad flopped onto the floor and, more importantly, Ian lost grip of his staff. Fear shrieked. “We need that!” he exclaimed, as Ian reached for the staff just inches in front of him.

“Ian?” Barley called out, watching as the gelatinous cube was looming over him as it crept inches closer towards the pit.

Ian climbed to his feet as fast as he could, then turned and held the staff upward, pulling Barley out of the pit and out of the impending doom of the gelatinous cube.

The emotions cheered for a brief second, followed by surprised screams as Barley was literally thrown onto Ian, causing the two to be thrown through the doorway. Just as Ian and Barley sat up, they caught sight of the door just less than a foot from the floor. It was too close for the brothers to make it through, but just enough to reach through and grab the leash on the other side.

“No!!” Fear shouted as all the emotions scrambled for one of the levers on the console and pulled back. Ian reached through the gradually closing opening, grabbed the leash and pulled back with all his might, with Barley grabbing the rope of the leash and pulling as well. With their combined efforts, the brothers dragged their Dad through the doorway, mere seconds before it closed with an echoing thud.  
The emotions sighed in relief and gradually peeled themselves off the console. Ian and Barley eventually stood and looked around, finding themselves in a small circular room with a tall ceiling. The emotions watched the screen as Ian looked up. “Wow, that’s really tall,” Joy commented aloud.

Fear gave a shriek as he caught sight of Barley gripping Ian by the shoulders before he could step forward. “Woah woah woah, don’t step on that,” Barley warned, motioning towards the cobblestone plate planted in the ground.

“We gotta be more careful,” Fear sighed, reeling back Ian’s leg.

“Hey, you weren’t looking down either,” Anger argued.

Before the emotions could continue, the room echoed with a loud thud, followed by an ominous sound of rushing water. Seconds later, water began to pour in through the thin cracks between the stone floor sand the rocky walls. Just as the waters reached their feet, Ian and Barley knew the waters were beginning to rise, and fast.

“I didn’t touch it!” Ian exclaimed, grasping his staff as Barley grabbed Dad and hoisted the sentient legs onto his shoulders.

“I didn’t touch it!” Fear exclaimed to the others, lost in his panic. “You all saw me not touch it! Did any of you guys touch it?”

“No one touched it, Fear!” Disgust snapped, shutting Fear up.

“Oh no,” Sadness gasped. “The water’s so cold.”

“It’s gonna ruin our hair!” Disgust gasped dramatically.

“That’s your concern?” Anger snapped at the others. “We’re all gonna drown!”

Joy was still distracted by the tall ceiling, finally making out the etching above them. “Oh! I got it! It’s a sun!”

“Huh?” Fear and the other emotions looked at the screen, noticing the engraving. Realizing that the water is taking them upwards, Fear thought aloud. “Maybe that’s the exit!”

“Let me try something!” Joy pressed a few buttons.

Ian tried to focus through the rising cold water as he aimed his staff upwards. “Voltar thundasir.” The staff released a small bolt that just flickered and fizzled mere feet above them.

“Of course that didn’t work,” Anger grumbled.

“I don’t see you coming up with bright ideas,” Disgust argued back.

“Like what?” Anger snapped. “Like that ceiling will open up if we DID step on the booby trap?”

Fear paused and thought a moment, eyeing the engraved sun in the ceiling. Quickly, he pressed a few buttons, and Ian held his breath and ducked his head underwater. The emotions quickly caught a glance of the cobblestone below them, noticing the exact same engraving. “That’s it,” Fear thought aloud.

Anger crossed his arms and said, “Told ya.”

Disgust pouted defensively. “Lucky guess.”

Ian took a deep breath as he returned his head above water. “That tile down there, it has the same shape as the opening!” Ian shouted above the rushing water.

“Maybe we were supposed to step on it.” Barley placed Dad onto Ian’s shoulders. “I got this,” Barley said before taking a deep breath and diving into the water.

The emotions crowded around the console and watched. The chamber was half full, so they knew it was quite a swim to the bottom. “Did he make it? Is it working? Is he okay?” Fear kept asking, begging for an answer.

A loud groan echoed above Ian. He looked up to see the ceiling begin to slowly open, revealing sunlight that poured into the room. “It’s working!” he cheered.

“Phew! Fear sighed.

“Yay!” Joy exclaimed, hugging Sadness. “We’re gonna make it!”

The ceiling immediately slammed shut. The room immediately became dark.

The emotions faces fell. “Wait, what?” Joy asked.

Barely popped his head back out of the water. “It’s impossible!” he gasped. “No one can hold their breath that long.”

Fear and Joy unanimously exchanged glances. “Hold their breath!” Together, they grabbed an idea bulb and placed it in the console.  
Ian glanced at Barley, Barley glanced back with the same wild idea. Together, they grabbed their Dad and shoved him down deep into the water.

Fear was already looking through the water like crazy. “Did he make it? Did he make it? Did he make it?”

“He made it!” Joy told Fear, hugging the purple emotion tight while pointing at the screen.

“But he’s not on the tile!” Disgust pointed out before grabbing for the controls.

“Ahh!!” Fear leaped over Sadness and Anger as he grabbed the controls as well.

Ian took the leash and pulled left, trying to lead Dad towards the plate. Moving blindly, the legs overstepped and nearly hit the wall.

“Too far! Right!” Anger snapped, grabbing a dial on the console.

Ian pulled right, making Dad overstep the tile again.

“Good effort,” Joy encouraged, seeing the frustration in the room. “We can do this.”

“Guys, the ceiling!” Sadness called out, pointing to the screen just as Ian’s head bumped against the stone ceiling.

“No no no no no!” Fear slammed his hand on a button.

Ian and Barley both took a deep breath and dove underwater just as the last remaining space of air was filled with water.

“Ian can’t hold his breath for long!” Fear said as he took the controls, making Ian pull the leash another direction. “Someone watch his vitals!”

Sadness looked down at the vitals on the console. “He’s losing oxygen fast,” Sadness cried. “He’s not gonna make it!”

“Wait!” Joy watched with baited breath as it looked like Dad was stumbling close enough to the stone plate, but missed by a mere inch. As the emotions sighed in frustration, Joy’s face lit up with hope. “He’s standing right over it! Pull up! Pull up!”

Ian and Barley both pulled the leash upward with all their might. Dad was pulled straight upward before floating straight down in a standing position right on the stone tile.

“We did it!” Joy cheered.

Sadness gasped. “Oh no! Ian’s lost his breath!”

“We’re gonna drown!” Fear shrieked.

Before panic could break out, the emotions saw onscreen as Ian was suddenly above water, gasping for breath as one hand clung to the edge on the basin on the other side of the open door.

While relieved, Fear was still dumbfounded. “Wha- what happened?”

Sadness looked down at the vitals stabilizing as he was putting the pieces together. “I think Barley pulled us out of the water.”

Joy grinned at Barley onscreen before grinning at Fear. “He’s such a nice guy.”

Ian and Barley climbed out of the water and sat on the edge of the basin. As Barley fished Dad out by the leash, the brothers could do nothing else but look at each other, their gasping breaths turning into laughs of relief, realizing that their trial is over. The emotions each shared a laugh, realizing that they survived, and they got Ian through all of that trouble. The Manticore, the pixies, the bridge, the dungeon. And they made it. With little time to spare, but they made it.

Barley picked Dad out of the water and hoisted him onto his shoulders. “The Phoenix Gem is just beyond this door,” Barley said triumphantly, motioning his hand proudly towards a ladder in the wall. The ladder led upwards towards the exit above, blocked by a metal plate with holes filtering sunlight through. “Shall we?”

Joy stepped in at the console. “I got this!” she said playfully.

Ian led the way, climbing up the ladder. “We certainly shall!” Ian exclaimed, his boasting voice echoing through the small space. “Dad, we have followed the quest, and it has led us to our victory!”

The emotions shared a laugh, with Fear patting Joy’s shoulder. “Nice one, Joy,” he smiled, with Joy smiling back.”

Ian reached up, moved the metal plate aside, and felt the warm sunlight pour onto his cold, wet face. He proudly climbed up through the hole to find himself facing…

… New Mushroomton High School.

Ian’s face fell.

The emotions paused and stared blankly at the screen. They had no clue what was going on. Looking for answers, Fear took control, allowing Ian climb out of the hole to look around at his surroundings. The more Ian looked, the more it began to sink in. The school. The BMV. The construction site surrounding the old weathered fountain. The water tower. The apparent sewer the two just climbed out of. This isn’t some shrine or trove containing the Phoenix Gem. This is right back where they started.

Barley finally pulled Ian away from an oncoming bus and onto the sidewalk. The jostle was enough to break Ian out of his confused trance. “We’re back… home,” he said in disbelief.

“No… no no no no, this isn’t right, this isn’t right,” Fear whimpered, stepping back and placing his hands under his arms.

“This can’t be right,” Barley thought aloud. “We took the path of peril. We followed the ravens, we followed the water… unless we were meant to stay away from the water.” Barley pulled the clover shaped stone from the raven statue out of his back pocket and observed the markings.

Anger grumbled as he threw his hands up in the air. “I knew it. I knew this was pointless.”

Disgust rolled his eyes. “Complete waste of time.”

Joy was still in a confused daze. “No… no, it couldn’t be.”

“Don’t worry,” Barley said, “we can figure this out.”

“Figure out what?” Ian asked. “We’re back where we started.”

“No, there was a gauntlet,” Barley began to argue. “Unless that gauntlet was for, coincidentally, some different quest.” Barley paused. “Actually that’s a possibility.”

“What?” Fear exclaimed as Sadness began to tear up and cry.

“No no, this has to be where the Phoenix Gem is,” Barley continued, his voice growing ever quieter as he thought to himself, “I followed my gut.”

Anger slowly turned at the screen. “What did he say?” he snarled.

Fear heard that growl. “Oh no… no, I-I got this.” Fear began to press buttons on the console.

“Oh no,” Ian said, reality hitting him like a ton of bricks. “The gem is in the mountain, which we could have been at hours ago, if we stayed on the expressway.”

“No, the expressway is too obvious,” Barley argued. “You can’t take the easiest path.”

“That’s it!” Anger shouted, storming up to the console. “Let me at him!”

Fear immediately grabbed Anger and pulled him away. “No! No no no!”

Joy intervened, helping Fear keep Anger away from the console. “Fear’s right! Let’s not have Ian say something he’ll regret.”

“I hate to admit it,” Disgust commented, Sadness right beside him, “but Joy’s right. It’s not Barley’s fault.”

“Then who’s is it?” Anger snapped, still in Fear’s arms.

“I don’t know!” Disgust snapped back.

“Who cares who’s fault it is?” Fear shrieked. “We have half a dad to-!”

“If I didn’t listen to you! Okay?!” Ian shouted.

The emotions froze. Fear looked at the console… the unmanned console. Confused and shocked, he silently looked at Disgust, Sadness, Joy, even Anger, still in his arms. Fear let go, Anger looked back and held up his arms, showing he didn’t do anything.

A glint of light finally caught Fear’s attention. He turned a complete one eighty and faced the Islands of Personality.

Family Island was alive and active.

Fear raced towards the window, the emotions following. They all looked at each other in shock, not understanding at all why Family Island would be active at a time like this.

“I can’t believe this,” Ian continued, stepping closer towards the shocked Barley, the emotions watching in stunned silence. “You act like you know what you’re doing, but you don’t have a clue, and… and that’s because you ARE a screw up! And you just screwed up my chance to have the ONE thing I never had!”

Barley winced, clearly hit hard by those words. But Ian, Ian didn’t care. He just grabbed Dad by the leash and began to storm off.

“Hey, where are you going?” Barley asked.

Ian stopped, turned, and shoved the wizard staff into Barley’s chest. “To spend what little time we have left with Dad,” he said firmly before turning his back to Barley and continuing to storm off. Barley called out to Ian, but his words were ignored by Ian’s elf ears. Ian continued to storm off, clearly furious, clearly heartbroken.

Barley’s inaudible words finally snapped Fear out of it. He shook his head, realizing that Ian was walking away. “Wait, where are you going? Turn back!” he shouted. He began to race to the console, when a loud sound behind Fear made him freeze in his tracks.  
Fear turned, and watched with the other emotions as Family Island shuttered… and the Barley part of the statue on Family Island crumbled away, the pieces falling into the Memory Dump beneath it.

“… no…. no, no no no no no…” Fear finally spoke in disbelief, his hands on the window glass. “This can’t be happening! What’s happening?” He turned to the other emotions, just as lost as he is. “What’s happening??”

The emotions were lost for the moment, before Joy finally spoke up. “The core memory… maybe it’s the core memory.” Joy immediately turned and ran for the core memory holder, the others following.

Fear chased after them. “No! The core memories are to remain in the core memory holder where they’re safe-!”

Anger turned and punched Fear in the gut, causing him to flop onto his back and grab his sides with a pained gasp. He then turned and met up with the others at the core memories.

Joy pressed the button to make the core memory holder to rise up out of the floor. After a quick search, she plucked out the core memory powering Family Island with a, “There!”

Disgust looked at the core memory as Joy examined it in his hands. The orb was bright and shining yellow, with a memory of Laurel at the dinner table with young Ian and young Barley, both laughing as they were baking cookies. “It’s still yellow,” he thought aloud. “That means Ian should be happy about his family.”

“But then why wasn’t he happy?” Joy brushed his hand over the bright yellow orb, and the orb dimmed.

The emotions were quiet. They watched as Joy tried it again. He brushed his hand one way, and the memory dimmed further. He brushed it another way, and the memory grew brighter than ever. Joy moved his hand on the orb further until the memory changed, to a memory of Laurel helping young Ian with his homework. Then, Joy changed the memory again, to a memory of young Barley helping young Ian learn to walk.

And the light dimmed so lowly that the orb was faded.

The core memory was faded.

Ian’s core memory of Barley was faded.

Joy was in disbelief. “This… this can’t be right.”

“Can you fix it, Joy?” Sadness asked.

Joy replied, “I dunno…”

Fear finally climbed up to his feet, one hand still clinging to the side of his sore torso. He looked through his narrow eyes to see Joy kneeled in front of an open memory holder, holding a core memory. “No!!” Fear ran to the group, but he couldn’t get passed the other emotions crowding Joy, wondering what’s wrong.

“Why is it faded?” Disgust asked. “Core memories can’t fade, can they?”

“This is so sad,” Sadness sobbed. “Ian’s forgetting Barley.”

“I knew it! I knew this would happen!” Anger shouted. “I knew we should check on the core memories!”

Fear couldn’t hear the emotions, he couldn’t even see that the core memory was faded. All he could see was Joy holding a core memory. Even playing with it! “Joy, put it back!”

Joy was still busy trying to fix the core memory. “Maybe if I… no…”

Fear kept trying to push through, calling out to Joy, but to no avail. “Joy, please!”

Finding a gap, Fear finally squeezed in and reached for Joy’s arm, only for Joy to pull away as he tried rubbing his forearm against it. What is he doing? “Joy, you’re…!”

“There’s gotta be some way to fix this,” Joy thought to himself, gently shaking the core memory.

In complete shock, Fear exclaimed, “You’re hurting my Ian!!”

Joy froze. Then turned to Fear. “YOUR Ian?”

Fear was wide eyed, frozen solid. What did he just say? Did he just say that? Out loud?

Joy’s confused face fell into a disappointing frown. He turned away from Fear, shoved the core memory back into the holder and walked away. “We’ll deal with it later, guys. Let’s go help Ian.” The other emotions followed, Anger leaving Fear with a judgmental glare before storming off.

Fear was left alone. No one to help him. No one to comfort him. All he could feel was the realization that everything was falling apart. And once everything was stripped away, he realized the damage he had done.

Ian lost the chance to see his Dad. Ian had left Barley behind. Ian’s Family Island was broken. Ian’s core memory of Barley was faded.  
And now, Fear has lost the respect of his emotions. Even Joy.

Feeling helpless, hopeless, Fear just let his body collapse and fell onto his knees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, I try to follow the rules of Inside Out while following the emotions in Inside Onward. But, this is where I had to be a bit creative to explain why and how it was Ian who blew up at Barley, and not the emotions. And, I thought the best way to make that work was that something was wrong with the Barley parts of Ian's Family Island. And, to make it worse, to make it Fear's fault by not having the emotions even touch the core memories once they are made. This would leave the core memories neglected, and eventually the Barley part of Family Island is faded and forgotten by Ian. There may be a plot hole or two in my thinking, but I think it works with the story.


	12. My Life Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The emotions try to help Ian have an epiphany, and Barley's emotions try to help Barley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's right, Barley's emotions are back in this chapter. In part because in Onward, we see this section through both brothers, even though they're apart. So, it only made sense to bring Barley's emotions back.

“Ian! We can still find the Phoenix Gem! We just have to keep looking!”

Barley kept calling out to his brother, but he never responded, didn’t even bother to turn his head and even look at him. Barley just gave up and watched, in disbelief, as Ian walked out of sight, with Dad trailing behind him.

In Headquarters, Barley’s emotions were silent, just staring at the screen, in dire hope that maybe Ian will snap out of it and turn back. Barley’s Sadness broke the tension, turning to Barley’s Joy and about to speak.

Barley’s Joy sadly held up his hand. “No. I heard him. Loud and clear.” With that, Barley’s Joy turned and quietly walked away from the console. The other emotions watched as the vibrantly ecstatic Joy silently walked to the back of the Headquarters, clinging his arms against himself, in desperate need of a hug.

\----

Ian slowed his pace to a melancholy walk soon as he heard the distant roar of crashing waves. He slowed his pace to a halt on the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean. He faced the sun, casting its orange warmth over the waters and the skies. The sun hung low, making Ian’s heart and hopes sink even further.

Hearing rustling next to him, Ian turned to see his Dad blindly brushing his foot against the dirt, as if he was searching for someone. Ian sighed, knowing exactly who. “No, Dad,” he whispered, defeated. “Barley’s not here.” With that, Ian sat down in the dirt near the edge of the cliff. As if led by the gentle tug of the leash, his Dad’s sentient legs sat down as well. Ian watched quietly as his Dad gave a solemn stance of uncertainty, and Ian understood the sentiment as he rested his chin onto his folded forearms and looked out over the ocean.

Sadness watched as the next of a bushel of blue memories rolled into short term, then looked up at Joy. Joy was just staring into the screen, a mix of melancholy and loss on his face. Disgust and Anger looked just as lost as he was, but looking up to him for answers. It only made Joy feel worse, feeling out of ideas, and lacking hope, as he lowered his head and sighed.

In the back of Headquarters, Fear sat facing the windows, looking over the Islands of Personality. He watched Dad Island keep stirring the more depressed Ian was feeling in his last hour with his half a dad. Then glanced over to Family Island, lying dormant, missing a statue of his brother Barley. 

Fear gave an exhale as he instinctively wrapped his hands under his arms, then paused when he felt his thumb brush up against some familiar stitching. He looked down as he removed his finger from the name “Lightfoot” stitched onto the sweatshirt. Short for Wilden Lightfoot. Dad. It was one of the few pieces of memories the emotions had to cling to, and the one Fear claimed the second he found it. He felt safe inside the sweatshirt the moment he put it on. He felt like if he wore that sweatshirt, just a little bit of Dad would keep him and Ian protected from the world, guiding them through any danger, any obstacle, any trial. Now, the sweatshirt felt like it hung on Fear like a lead weight, and the comforting name was mocking the emotion and leader that he failed to be. Frustrated and disappointed in himself, Fear stripped off the sweatshirt and tossed it on the ground beside him. He let it lie there as he curled up into a tight little ball, his hands wrapping around his red flannel shirt, as he closed his eyes tight, letting his tears drip against his knees and stain his denim jeans.

\----

Barley’s Fear, Disgust and Anger manned the console while his Sadness went to comfort his Joy, who sitting on the floor by the core memories. Barley’s Anger was growing agitated at his Fear making Barley appear to wander aimlessly. “Where do you think you’re making him go?”

“I dunno, I dunno!” Barley’s Fear whimpered. “It doesn’t make sense!”

“Calm down, geez!” Barley’s Disgust snapped.

“Sorry.” Barley’s Fear pulled himself away from the controls and turned to the others. “But, it doesn’t make sense, right? We took the path of peril, we followed the water, we went through a gauntlet. It wouldn’t make sense for the quest to just dump us here, right? I-I mean, with no reason?”

Barley’s Disgust glared at his Fear, as if the emotion was raving in denial, until he heard that phrase again. “Follow the water…” His Disgust took over the controls and had Barley race into the construction site.

Making a desperate beeline for the fountain, Barley jumped into the ankle deep water and began splashing his hands in the shallows, looking for something, anything. Just being there was enough to get the construction workers attention. “Oh here we go, okay out of the fountain,” one worker said, already tired of Barley’s antics.

“No, not now!” Barley’s Fear gasped, joining in at the console.

Barley called out as he kept looking through the waters, “No! I’m trying to find an ancient gem!”

“Oh, I get it, like the old days,” one worker said, rolling his eye.

Barley’s Anger stormed up to the console as he saw the construction workers grab Barley by the arms and escort him out of the fountain. “Get off of him!”

“No! Stop! Let go of me!” Barley both demanded and begged.

As the emotions fought to help Barley out of the construction workers grasp, Barley’s Sadness sat quietly next to his Joy. Barley’s Joy quietly looked off into nothingness, empty look on his face. His Sadness felt moved to place a hand on his shoulder, which was enough to make his Joy quietly bury his face into his hands and cry.

Barley threw his hands in the air in irritated defeat as he exclaimed, “Okay, fine, I’m leaving!” That was enough for the construction workers to let him go… and enough for Barley to turn around and race back to the fountain. Barley flung the wizard staff atop the fountain before climbing up to the top.

“Great bait and switch, you two,” Barley’s Disgust told his Fear and Anger. “Now, what do we do?”

Barley’s Fear shrunk back as he heard one of the construction workers mention the police. “I-I don’t know…”

Clinging to the arch atop the fountain for dear life, Barley gasped, trying to hold back his tears, feeling every single part of him at a loss.

\----

Joy silently watched the same sunset Ian was watching, as he slowly saw the sun sink lower into the sky. Inch by inch, closer to the horizon, counting down the minutes until Dad is gone. Forever. Joy closed his eyes and let a tear shed down his face.

Sadness looked up through his tears, placing a comforting hand on Joy’s. Joy took it in return, giving it a thankful squeeze. Feeling led, Sadness took his free hand and input a command on the console, as Joy managed to squint her eyes open and watch.

Ian reached into his back pocket and pulled out his little notebook and pen. Still wet from the water trap earlier, the notebook was still legible as Ian flipped it open to the page with the list of things he wished to do with his Dad. Without a word or hesitation, Ian took his pen and began scratching out the remaining things on his list. Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Joy watched as Ian marked out every single wish that he missed. Heart to heart. Laugh together. Driving lesson.

Joy suddenly placed his hand on Sadness, stopping him, and stopping Ian partway into crossing out that last one. Joy’s eyes were wide, as some idea bulb just went off inside his head. Quickly, Joy pressed a few buttons on the console, then turned to the memory player. The four emotions watched as a bright purple memory dropped into the player and replayed a memory from the night before, the one where Ian was terrified to merge onto the interstate, until Barley beckoned to him “You’ll never be ready! Merge!”

Fear’s purple elf ears caught the voice of Barley replay in the memory, his wet eyes looking up from his knees.

Ian paused a moment, remembering the fresh fearful memory, before taking his pen. Instead of crossing out ‘driving lesson,’ he placed a checkmark beside it.

Joy gave a small gasp, followed by a small smile.

Sadness looked up at Joy, realizing what he was doing. “Yeah… yeah…” He looked up at the list onscreen, then caught the first one scratched out on the list. ‘Play catch.’ Sadness went to the short term memories, picked a specific yellow orb, and placed it in the memory player. Onscreen replayed the memory from earlier in the day, when the two brothers were on their cheese puff raft, Barley playfully tossing a chunk of puff at Ian, and Ian catching it with the levitation spell.

Ian checked off ‘play catch,’ as Disgust nodded, getting what’s going on. “Oh, and ‘laugh together,’” Disgust said aloud as he typed in a command, recalling a yellow memory from last night. Onscreen played the happy memory of the two brothers laughing as they danced with their Dad’s badly dancing legs.

Fear lifted his head as he swore he saw Family Island twitch a bit. With wide eyes, he quickly turned his head to the front of Headquarters to see what was going on. He watched as Anger placed a memory of Ian and Barley walking from raven statue to raven statue earlier, followed by Ian checking off ‘take a walk.’

The four emotions at the console cheered a bit, before surprised by the memory changing on its own. It now played a sad memory of Barley telling his fourth memory of Dad. The emotions turned and caught Fear stepping back after placing the memory in the player.

“You again?” Disgust spat.

“Get away from there!” Anger shouted.

“No! Look!” Joy pointed to the screen. All the emotions watched as Ian checked ‘heart to heart’ off the list.

Then Ian looked down at the last thing on his list. Share my life with him.

“Everybody!” Joy immediately shouted. “Recall all the memories you can!”

“You heard him! Start recalling!” Fear jumped up to the console and began inputting commands. The other emotions said not a word as they were busy pressing buttons, turning dials, pulling levers and flipping switches.

Within seconds, Ian was remembering random memories, from yesterday all the way back to his childhood. Ian and Barley as kids playing in the swimming pool. Teenage Barley dropping off teenage Ian at school. Preteen Barley helping preteen Ian with his homework. Kids Ian and Barley having a pillow fight. Kid Barley scaring off a bully before checking on his little brother. Little Barley helping little Ian learn to ride a bike.

The emotions whipped and zipped all over headquarters, pulling memory after memory after memory. Within moments, they recalled every memory they could think of, and the floor was scattered with random memories they were too busy to return to long term memory.  
Fear put in the last memory they had on hand, a memory of little Barley protecting little Ian in a couch fort during a thunderstorm. The emotions looked at each other, quietly showing that was the last they could think of. They looked back at the Family Island, still quiet. The emotions then looked up at Ian, staring down at the empty box next to the final item on his list.

The emotions gathered by the console, staring up at Ian in desperate anticipation. Fear tucked his hands under his arms, gripping the sides of his flannel shirt. He quietly whispered, silently begged, “please, please, please, please, please…”

Ian finally took his pen, and placed a check mark by ‘share my life with him.’

As Ian pulled back his pen and looked down at his completed list, Headquarters was silent. The emotions were frozen, glancing at each other, unsure what was going to happen now.

Wanting ANY form of a response, Fear asked aloud, “Did it work?”

A loud chime echoed through Headquarters. The emotions simultaneously turned and saw a bright light of energy shoot out from the core memory holder and filter straight towards Family Island. The light made it to Family Island, making it whir to life as the emotions made it to the window. They watched in awe as the energy lit up the island, collect behind the statue of Ian and build into a new statue of Barley. While it looked like the last one, this one wasn’t holding Ian in a chokehold while giving him a noogie. This one was grabbing Ian and bringing him in for a hug.

After taking all the memories in, Ian looked down at his list… and smiled the biggest, most loving smile he ever had when thinking of his big brother.

“We did it, gang!!” Joy cheered, so excited that yellow particles literally burst off of his form as he leaped in the air. Sadness, Anger and Disgust cheered as they all gathered around. Fear was left alone, exhaling with a big relieved smile on his face. He wiped the condensation his sigh left on the glass to get a good look at the fixed Family Island once more. Even with the Island fixed, and the emotions happy, Fear felt empty inside. He felt… wrong. He still felt blame, he still felt like he owed the emotions an apology. He owed Ian an apology. He owed Barley…

“Barley…” Fear jumped up to his feet and turned to the other emotions. “Barley! Ian just left him there!”

“Oh no,” Sadness sighed as the other emotions quieted down and realized that their work wasn’t done. “Barley must feel terrible. Ian must feel terrible. Now I feel terrible!” Sadness sobbed.

“Feel terrible later,” Anger said, trying to put Sadness together.

“We gotta get back to Barley! Come on!” Joy exclaimed, leading the way to the console.

Ian got up on his feet, helped his Dad’s legs onto his, and immediately ran back to the fountain. Back to Barley.

\----

Barley’s Joy wiped the tears from his eyes as his Sadness helped him up and led him to the console. As his Joy approached, he caught sight of something onscreen. The other emotions looked up and caught sight of something between Barley’s feet as he stood atop the fountain. It appeared to be some clover shaped divot carved into the fountain, the same size and shape as the clover shaped stone from earlier in their quest.

“You don’t think…” Barley’s Joy pressed a few buttons.

Barley reached into his vest pocket and pulled out the clover shaped rock. After inspecting it to be sure it fit, he attempted to place it in the clover shaped hole in the fountain. It slipped right in perfectly, as if that what they key object was made for. Barley stood up as he heard shifting of stone above him, and was face to face with a hidden compartment of the fountain opening to reveal, standing on its rightful pedestal, the Phoenix Gem.

“Yeah!! Yeah-ha!!” Barley cheered.

“Yeah!!” Barley’s Joy cheered, hugging the other emotions as they celebrated Barley’s victory. “I knew it!! I knew it!! Barley’s not a screw up!!”

As Barley plucked the gem from its place, he swore he could hear Ian calling out his name. He looked up and saw Ian in the distance, running up fast.

“Oh! Look! It’s Ian!” Barley’s Joy ran up to the console, waving to Ian as if he can see him. “Ian! Ian, look! We found it! Barley found the Phoenix Gem!”

“Ian!” Barley called out, waving the Phoenix Gem in the air triumphantly.

“Barley!” Fear called out in Ian’s mind. “Barley! I’m so sorry! Barley, we’re coming!”

Despite being a long ways off, Disgust could catch something odd going on at the fountain. “Uh, guys. I don’t think fountains pour out red smoke.”

“What” Fear stopped his cries for Barley and looked behind him, catching billowing smoke pouring out from behind him. “Oh, no…”

“Behind you!” Ian shouted out to Barley.

Barley turned around, his proud smile fell into fear. His emotions gasped, as Barley uttered in terror, “It’s a curse.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But, in the spirit of Onward, this is the second and last time we're going to see inside Barley's mind. I know, we want to see in Barley's mind at other points of this story. But, like in Onward, some moments we're just going to leave with Barley.
> 
> But look on the bright side, the climax of the film is coming up!


	13. Fight or Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The emotions try to help Ian through the end of his quest, complete with curses and rewards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to release the last two chapters together because so much wraps up in this chapter that the next chapter is more like an epilogue. But, here they are, the ending to our emotional story. Now I can watch Soul!

The fountain overflowed with red smoke, creeping over the grass, dirt and pavement, terrifying onlookers as they stopped to watch the curse pour out over their feet. Like a sentient apparition, the cursed fog billowed across the street towards the high school, as a cluster gathered above the air, turning into a darkened orb of red, powerful, evil magic. Some teenagers pulled out their cameras as dozens of red plumes shot out like fierce tentacles, rampaging through the school, grabbing various objects such as vending machines, desks, lockers, even chunks of walls and rebar torn from the building’s interior.

Fear shrieked as he caught a nearby car from the driving school get snatched off the street. “DIVE!! DIVE!!” he screamed, slamming his hand on a button.

Ian grabbed his Dad and dove down onto the ground, ducking from the car flying just inches above him. The teenage elf looked up, and he and his emotions watched on in shock as the smoky tentacles pulled the debris in and began building around the core. Concrete became limbs, rebar became horns, metal became a spine, lockers became support for wings made of red smoke. Piece by piece, the debris took form into a dragon made of rock and metal and magic. The last piece was the face of the high school’s cute cartoon mascot, also a dragon, becoming the face of the accursed fiend.

The emotions gasped, with exception of Anger rolling his eyes with an “Aw, come on.” Anger’s irritation wasn’t enough to calm Ian’s nerves, as he was left shaking with fear.

Concrete crumbled from the beast’s jaw as it gave a mighty roar, a bellowing growl mixed with the ring of the school bell. The rock dragon then glared down with its painted on eyes, as if it could actually see Barley standing on top of the fountain. In Barley’s shaking hand was the Phoenix Gem, the very prize stolen from the monster.

Without hesitation, Fear slammed his hand down on the console.

“Barley!! Run!!” Ian shouted.

He didn’t need to be told to run, as Barley leaped off the fountain and ran away from the beast. The dragon followed, barely at a walk, and yet catching up quickly to Barley, running as fast as the burly elf could.

Thinking fast, Barley reached into his vest pocket. “What do you want? You want the gem? Fine, take it!” he shouted out, tossing an orange item into the bushes away from him.

The emotions watched in shock, with Joy asking in confusion. “What the- why would he do that?”

As Barley made his escape, racing towards Ian, he reached into his vest again and pulled out the Phoenix Gem.

The emotions sighed in relief, as Disgust commented, “Wow, that was pretty good.”

“But wait, so what did he throw?” Fear asked.

The dragon barely inspected Guinevere’s old reflector before turning its attention back to Barley. Once catching sight of the Phoenix Gem being waved in the air by his own hand, the chunks of rock broke apart on its brow as it grimaced. The beast opened its gaping maw and released a blaze of fire, shooting out towards the ground and separating the two brothers. Ian and Barley were both thrown back from the might of the furious flames.

Ian gasped for breath as he sat up. “AH!! DAD ON FIRE!! DAD ON FIRE!!” Fear shouted, Ian quickly patting out a small flame on Dad’s pant leg. The elf helped his Dad’s legs up on his feet and immediately ran, his Dad’s legs being led by the leash, as the dragon took flight on its mighty wings, giving chase after Ian this time.

“RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN!!” Joy shouted as Fear pushed hard on the levers, making Ian run away with all his might. Joy jumped in and took over as Fear let go to input a command, making Ian duck from the flames.

A loud slam caused the ground to shake, causing Ian to stumble. Out of the corner of Ian’s eye, the emotions caught the beast now fallen on the ground yards beside Ian. Before the emotions could react, they heard the mighty roar from above. This time, not the roar of a dragon, but the roar of a lion. Ian looked up and saw the Manticore from the night before flying valiantly into battle, her mighty broadsword in hand, and Laurel riding on her broad back.

“The Manticore!!” Barley shouted in amazed excitement.

“Mom??” Ian called out in shocked confusion.

“Mom??” the emotions echoed in shared confusion, with Anger asking, “Is Mom riding a flying bear??”

Laurel called out from atop the mighty Manticore, “Don’t worry boys, we’ll take care-!” before her voice ended up becoming mumbled as she began to speak to the Manticore.

“What’s going on? What is she saying?” Fear asked the others, also equally baffled.

“Go see your father!” Laurel yelled out to them, loud and clear.

“Don’t worry!” Barley shouted out to Ian. “Once they pierce the beast’s core with that sword, the curse will be broken! Come on!”  
Ian paused, wondering what the game plan is as he caught Barley running towards a rocky hillside nearby. 

“Are we really gonna do this?” Fear asked, his panic distracting him. “What’s gonna stop the dragon??”

“Mom’s got this!” Disgust said, pointing to the dragon taking to the skies to chase after the Manticore.

“But who’s got mom??” Fear shrieked.

“Fear!” Joy grabbed Fear’s wrist and showed him his own wrist watch. Less than ten minutes left on the ticking clock. Fear nodded, then grabbed the big levers, pushing them forward.

Racing through the smoke and ashes, Ian ran up the rocky hillside, guiding his Dad along the way. At the top, Ian met Barley, who was running with blinders on, the world obviously blocked out as he focused on his own mission. Fear couldn’t believe Barley could be that determined and collected through all this chaos. As Barley unhooked the leash from Dad’s belt and threw it aside, another thought distracted Fear’s mind, and he began inputting a command on the console.

“Barley,” Ian began, “what I said back there, I am so so-“

“No time!” Barley interrupted, shoving the Phoenix Gem into the tongs of the wizard’s staff, then shoving the wizard staff into Ian’s hands. “Sun’s about to set!”

“Oh! Duh! Right!” Fear responded, before turning to Disgust. “Disgust!”

“Time to make some magic,” Disgust said as he took his place beside Fear. Joy took his place at Fear’s other side.

Without hesitation, Ian took his staff and pointed it straight towards Dad. “Only once is all we get, grant me this rebirth…”

The emotions continued along with Ian, “Until tomorrow’s sun has set, one day to walk the earth!”

A burst of energy blasted out of the staff as a streaming bolt of magic flowed outward to Dad. Particle by particle, the chaotic spell continued to build Dad from the waist up, little by little the bottom of his dress shirt began to appear. Ian grit his teeth, trying to keep control of the powerful spell as he kept his feet firmly planted on the ground.

In Headquarters, the emotions were enveloped in a vortex of magic, the console shining brightly and coursing with power. Fear, Disgust and Joy held on, Anger and Sadness helping to keep the other three from losing their grip on the controls.

“Hold on,” Joy called out through the chaos. “Hold on…!”

“We got this, guys!” Fear told the others. “Focus on Ian!”

Sadness looked up at the screen as it appeared Ian was slowly backing away. “Oh no, it’s too strong!”

“No no no no no no!” Fear let go of the controls, Anger immediately stepped in as Fear leaped over and slammed his hands down on a button.

“Barley!!” Ian called out to his brother.

Barley braced all his weight and muscle against Ian’s back, holding Ian in place. The brothers held on with all their might through the chaos and power of the spell.

Suddenly, a large aura of magic burst around them, and everything went calm. The brothers looked up, and Fear peeked from his hands over his eyes. The Phoenix Gem was now levitating in midair above the bottom half of their Dad. In the still serenity of the spell, the Phoenix Gem shined brightly, slowly breaking down into little flakes of golden magic that aided in finishing the spell, gradually returning their Dad from the waist upward. Ian and Barley watched in awe, reality slowly washing over them that they were just moments away from finally seeing their Dad.

Catching their breaths, the emotions backed away from the console. Fear turned to Dad Island as it sprung to life, then back at the screen with a smile growing on his face.

“This is it,” Joy told the others, so full of excitement he could burst. “This is happening. This is actually happening.”

“Guys!” Laurel called out to her sons. “It’s coming back!”

Ian and Barley turned to see The Manticore fallen on the ground, Laurel on her knees, the broadsword missing, and the now wingless dragon approaching the hillside.

“No no no,” Fear said, his face fallen into worry. “Not now. This can’t be happening.”

“I’ll go distract it,” Barley announced.

“What?” the emotions gasped as Fear input a command onto the console.

“No,” Ian told Barley, grabbing his arm to stop him. “If you go, you’ll miss dad.”

“That’s okay,” Barley replied. “Say hi to dad for me.”

Fear stepped back, placing his hands under his arms as he looked up at the screen, up at Barley.

“What are you doing?” Disgust called out as the emotions surrounded Fear.

“He gave us the go ahead!” Anger shouted.

“We can finally see dad!” Joy told Fear, trying to shake him out of it.

Fear slightly shook his head, as if a realization was overwhelming him. “No… no, this isn’t… this isn’t right…”

“What do you know about what’s right?” Anger shouted at Fear.

Fear immediately turned to Anger and snapped back, “Barley needs this just as much as Ian!”

Sadness added, “Fear’s right. Barley needs to see Dad.”

“So do we,” Disgust argued. “We went through this quest. We went through the gauntlet.”

“Barley found the gem,” Fear pointed out.

“But we want this too!” Anger shouted.

“Ohh, why can’t they both have this?” Joy wondered aloud.

“No… no, you go say goodbye,” Ian suddenly spoke.

The emotions immediately stopped arguing and turned to the screen, then the empty console. “What the?” Fear announced in shocked confusion. “Then how did he-?”

Sadness gasped. “Look!” he told the others, pointing towards the Islands of Personality. One by one, the emotions turned, each one gasping as they all caught sight of Family Island active.

“I had someone who looked out for me,” Ian said, as the emotions looked back up at the screen. “Someone who pushed me to be more than I ever thought I could be. I never had a dad… but I always had you.”

Barley paused, touched by the words Ian confessed to him.

Joy looked at Fear, then shrugged with a soft smile. “Well… looks like Ian decided.”

Fear’s worried face faded to focus as he nodded. He turned to Anger, Anger narrowed his eyes as he stormed up and slammed his fist down on the console.

Ian gripped his staff and ran towards the dragon. Just as he approached the edge of the hillside, Ian held his staff outward and proclaimed loudly, “Bridgrigar invisia!” Still charging towards the beast, Ian’s steps glowed as he now ran in midair.

“Woo! That’s my boy!” Disgust cheered as he pressed a few buttons on the console.

“Boombastia!” Ian shouted, aiming his staff with a flourish. A bright spark of magic shot out and slammed against the side of the dragon’s face, erupting into a flurry of sparkling energy that distracted the beast. 

Gathering its bearings, the dragon turned, swiping his tail in the air, careening towards Ian. “DUCK!!” Fear shouted as he dove onto the console. Ian acted fast, sliding in midair as he dove under the concrete tail. Ian then jumped back on his feet, standing firmly in midair, as the dragon stood his ground with a threatening, bell clamoring roar. 

Ian stared the dragon down, gritting his teeth, his eyes burning with intensity. “That’s what I’m talking about!” Anger cheered, pumping his fist in the air.

“Tail at one o’clock!” Joy called out as he took his place at the control.

Ian looked up to see the rocky tail falling towards him. “Aloft elevar!” he shouted as he pointed his staff at the tail. The tail was immediately enveloped in a shroud of magic, halting it in midair.

“Woo-hoo-hoo!” Joy cheered for Ian.

“Keep holding, Joy!” Fear ordered, seeing Ian struggle. The other emotions joined Fear at the console, scrambling for similar commands, helping Ian stay focused and keep hold. Moments passed before the dragon pulled its tail forward, causing Ian to slip off his invisible platform in midair. “No no no no! Hold on, everybody!” Fear cried out, the emotions working with all their might.

Ian held on as tightly as he could to the staff. He could feel his body flailing as the dragon swung its tail around wildly in the air, trying to loosen the elf from his magical grasp. Soon Ian’s focus snapped, the spell broke, and the dragon sent Ian flying through midair.

“Brace for impact!” Fear shouted, as the emotions cried out from Ian being flung high in the air and far across the field.

Ian slammed into the ground and rolled to a stop, gripping his leg in pain. “Oh no, I heard a snap!” Sadness cried out.

Fear immediately looked over the vitals on the console. “Ian’s leg! It’s broken!”

“Oh no,” Disgust said, pointing at the screen. “We got worse problems, guys.”

Ian watched in horror as the staff he lost went soaring over the cliff and sank into the water. “No!!”

“No!!” the emotions shouted in unison.

With its distraction gone, the beast focused its attention back on Barley. With a threatening roar, the dragon made its way towards the hillside.

“Foot!” Anger shouted as he and Fear grabbed the controls.

Ian rolled out of the way of the dragon’s foot, missing it by mere inches. The elf struggled to stand, trying to balance and focus through the pain of his broken leg.

“Easy, easy,” Fear said as Sadness and Disgust helped Ian up on his two lean legs.

“Great, now what do we do?” Anger snarled.

“We lost the staff,” Sadness cried.

“What do we do now?” Disgust asked, at a loss.

“I know!” Joy said. “Use what we have!”

“Use what I have,” Ian thought aloud. “Use what I have… what do I have? I have nothing.”

“We have nothing, Joy!” Anger snapped.

“There must be something!” Fear shrieked. “We gotta have something!”

“Ew! Spinter!” Disgust gasped.

“Splinter?” Fear looked up at the screen to see Disgust pointing out a small splinter embedded into Ian’s palm. “Splinter!”

“Magic in every fiber,” Ian muttered to himself as he bit down on the miniscule remnant of the staff and pulled it out with his teeth. With the wooden fiber held out in front of him, pinched between his fingers, Ian declared, “Magnora gantuan!” In the blink of an eye, the splinter grew to the perfect size of a magical wooden staff.

“It worked!” Joy cheered.

The dragon slowed to a stop as he climbed up the small rocky hill, approaching Barley from behind. Barley was distracted by the spell nearly complete, unaware of the beast behind him.

“NO!!” The emotions unanimously dove onto the console, each inputting the same command.

“NO!! VOLTAR THUNDASIR!!” Ian shouted, aiming the staff directly at the dragon. With a clap of thunder, a fierce bolt of lightning snapped out of the staff. The bolt struck the beast’s side, crushing the concrete shell, exposing the glowing red core.

“IAN!!” Laurel called out to her son. 

Ian turned to see the Manticore’s broadsword being tossed towards him. Fear released one of his hands from one button so he can slam his hand down on another. “Accelior!” Ian declared, pointing his staff towards the sword. With the sword caught in midair in a magic blue aura, Ian flung the mighty blade towards the core at a fierce velocity.

The sword stabbed the dragon’s core. The curse broke, causing the core to explode with enough force to destroy the dragon and send its shrapnel flying away from the hill.

“Incoming, incoming!” Fear called out as he saw some debris flying in the air towards Ian. Just as he began to input commands, he saw the console begin to dim, followed by the screen gradually shutting down. “AHH!! This can’t be happening!! What’s happening??!”

The emotions looked up as they saw the lights dim in Headquarters. “Great, he fainted,” Disgust pouted.

Fear panicked, turning to each and every one of the other emotions, who were just as lost and scared as he was. “We lost Ian? We lost Ian!! What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do??”

A loud chime caught the emotions attention towards the side of the screen, as a bright, glowing orb appeared and began to roll down the chute. Joy broke the silence by whispering, “A core memory…”

Disgust eyed the brightly colored memory, commenting, “I’ve never seen one like that before,” noting how it seemed to be a mix of all five colors, and sparking with an aura of white magic.

Fear watched as the core memory rolled under the floor and made its way to the core memory holder. “Follow that light!” Fear told the others, as it’s pretty much the only bright light in Headquarters.

The emotions scrambled towards the core memory holder, watching as the core memory lit the way. With each inch, the core memory lit Headquarters in a different glow. Yellow. Blue. Red. Green. Purple. Yellow. Blue. Red. Green. Purple. All with a trail of white magic sparkling behind. As the core memory took its place in the holder, a white light filtered outward towards the Islands of Personality, and began to shape a brand new island. The emotions approached the window, squinting hard, as they’ve never seen a light so bright before. They watched in awe and curiosity as the bright light took form into a new island, to the right of Family Island. Once complete, the light faded into a burst of energy much like fireworks.

The brand new island displayed a replica of a Phoenix Gem, a replica of the Quests of Yore book, and a statue of Ian, dressed in a wizard’s robes, holding his wizard staff high. A bright sparkle of light shined from the tip of the staff, with Ian looking upon the light, his face full of wonder.

Fear gazed wide eyed at the new island shining in the near distance. “Is that… Wizard Island?”

Joy turned to Fear and gave a sweet, sweet smile. “Best birthday ever.”

Sadness, Disgust and Anger looked on in awe, with Disgust having to comment, “I wouldn’t have chosen that pointy hat, though.”

The lights turned back on in Headquarters as the power returned. The emotions immediately raced back to the console to check on Ian. Joy reached the vitals first, reporting, “Leg’s still broken. Pretty sore. Pretty winded. Everything else is returning to normal. Stamina, energy…”

Fear was still looking at the dark screen. “Then where’s visuals?” Fear asked aloud as he frantically began pressing buttons, causing the screen to shift as Ian began to get up off the ground. 

The emotions reacted in surprise, followed by Joy commenting, “Oh, sleepyhead’s awake.”

Ian climbed onto his hands and knees, the piece of debris draped over him sliding off. As he stood, he began to gasp as his aching leg began shooting sharp pains, especially when he put weight on it. “Easy, easy, easy,” Fear told himself as he helped Ian to his feet.

Ian looked around, finding himself surrounded by concrete and metal, the remaining debris of the fallen beast. He looked to be trapped in a crater, cut off on all sides. Just himself, and his emotions.

“How do we get out?” Fear asked the other emotions. “Our leg is broken.”

“Let’s try the levitation spell,” Disgust suggested. “Where’s the staff? Has anyone seen the staff?”

“Oh no,” Sadness sighed. “We lost the staff.”

“Great, that’s just great,” Anger grumbled.

“Let’s ask mom for help,” Joy suggested. “She’s right there.”

“Where?” Fear looked at Joy point at a small gap in the debris wall, where they could see Laurel being helped up by Colt as she placed a hand on her sore back. Suddenly, Laurel looked up in amazement, her eyes twinkling from the reflecting light.

Ian turned, then froze in awe as warm, golden light poured through every crack, big and small, in the section of wall separating him from Barley.

“Ooh, pretty,” Joy exhaled.

Momentarily distracted by the vibrant aura, Fear reached for the controls. The emotions watched as Ian began to find some kind of crack or hole he can look through. Once the emotions realized what Fear was doing, they began guiding him with directions such as “to the left” “no, my left” “too small, try that one” “higher”…

Eventually, Ian found the right gap that he could use as a small window… just in time to see the glowing light fade, revealing a familiar stranger facing Barley…

Dad.

Disgust’s smile faded to a pout. “He’s facing away from us.”

“Shh,” Sadness hushed, trying to watch.

After a pause, Dad finally moved, checking over himself to see if he was really and fully back. He then looked up, and reacted to seeing Barley. He looked glad to see him, after all these years, now fully grown.

“What do you think they’re saying?” Joy wondered aloud.

Fear thought for a moment, before shaking his head. “I-I dunno,” Fear replied, before continuing to watch.

“Maybe we can hear something,” Anger commented quietly, “if you guys would shut up.”

The emotions watched as Ian watched the silent scene unfold. For a moment, Sadness looked down, catching sight of Ian’s vitals displaying his balance shifting, and his pain increasing. “uh oh…”

Ian’s foot on his broken leg slipped, causing the teenage elf to skid down the wall with a pained groan.

“Woah! Is he okay?” Fear worried.

“Ian’s fine,” Joy assured Fear.

Ian squinted as he caught the sight of the sunset through a nearby gap in the wall. Fear looked down at his watch. “Only ten seconds left,” he gasped.

Joy gasped, before grabbing the controls. “Oh, please be off by just a few seconds,” Sadness wished aloud.

Ian struggled through the pain to reach the closest gap he could find. He peered through the wall, just in time to catch sight of Dad giving Barley a big, loving hug. Ian exhaled a smile for his big brother. 

The emotions awed as they gathered close, trying to get a good view along with Ian.

Barley hugged back, as tight as he could, never wanting to let go. Moments passed, and Dad’s form began to dissolve into light and fade off into the breeze. And like that, Dad was gone. All that remained was Barley standing with his eyes closed tight, hugging onto himself. A long moment passed, then Barley looked up at the sky, wiping a tear from his cheek, before making his way down the hillside.  
Joy sniffled, tears running down his smiling face. “That was beautiful.”

“We never got to see Dad,” Sadness sobbed as he fell face first onto the console.

Fear’s soft smile turned into a frown, as he nodded, accepting Ian’s fate. “Yeah. I know.”

A few soft clicks of rubble caught Ian’s attention, causing him to look up just as Barley leaned over the edge of the crater. Barley held out his hand, Ian took it and carefully climbed out of the pit, with Barley helping him up. With a bit of a limp, Ian finally found the right balance as he stood in front of his brother. Ian looked over at the empty hillside for a second, before looking back.

Ian asked, “What did he say?”

Barley replied. “He said, he thought that his wizard name would be Wilden the Whimsical.”

“Wow,” Ian replied with a laugh,” that’s really terrible.”

“We can totally do better with Ian’s wizard name,” Disgust thought aloud.

Barley continued, “He also said that he would be very proud of the person you grew up to be.”

Joy and Fear exchanged grins as Family Island shined brightly behind them.

“Well, I owe a whole lot of that to you,” Ian replied with a soft, thankful smile.

“He kind of said that too,” Barley admitted.

The emotions gathered close, each and every one proud of their Ian.

“Oh,” Barley added, “and he told me to give you this.”

Barley stepped close, wrapped his arms around Ian, and gave him a big, warm, long hug.

Ian’s eyes swelled with tears, before he grabbed Barley, hugging him as tight as he could.

Fear smiled as he saw that brotherly hug and heard Family Island active. His attention was taken away, however, as he felt a warm, playful tap on his shoulder. He turned to find Joy, then noticed all the emotions looking towards him. He stiffened up and wrapped his hands around his torso, fearing the worst.

With a warm smile, Joy pulled out that replica sweatshirt and presented it back to Fear.

Fear’s eyes swelled with tears, he leaped forward and clung tightly onto Joy, never wanting to let go. Joy dropped the sweatshirt in surprise, then hugged tightly back. One by one, from Sadness, to Disgust, to Anger, the emotions joined in, turning the emotional hug into a group hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to share something I hope you guys with a keen eye caught, cause this was me trying to do something clever and subtle that Pixar would do. So, in the story, if Ian does something with someone that he considers family, his Family Island would light up. So, with that in mind, feel free to reread the story, and notice that his Family Island activates when Ian's with Laurel, but not with Barley. All the interactions with Barley, the emotions were helping him react to it. And the only time it does light up is when Ian lied about being a screw up, and when he admitted that Barley was a screw up. So, yeah, that's me trying to subtly show that something was wrong with Ian's Family Island from the start of the story. Thankfully, after the emotions literally jogged Ian's memory, thus getting Barley back on Family Island, did the Island light up when Ian interacted with Barley. But enough tooting my own horn over it, I also thought it worked as a way to separate Ian the person from Ian and his emotions, so the story is less about Ian's emotions controlling him and more about Ian's journey with his emotions.


	14. The New Iandore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story ends on how Ian and his emotions are doing after their quest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a new 2 in 1 laptop tablet combo for Christmas, which means Inside Onward is the last fanfiction I wrote on this junk of a laptop. And I couldn't be more prouder. Not only is this the longest fanfic I've written, but I stopped and teared up at the last paragraph, not wanting this to end. Thank you all for reading.

The familiar chime of the smartphone alarm rang through headquarters. Followed by another familiar wake up call of a chipper voice exclaiming, “It’s morning! It’s morning! Wake up, sleepyheads! It’s a new day!”

Fear woke up with a yawn, his arms and nerve stretching as far as they could reach. He then gave a lazy smile to Joy, watching him bound across the room, waking up Anger and Sadness. “Come on, you guys!” Joy cheered, still dressed in his pajamas, but raring to go. “You don’t want Ian to be late for school!”

Fear climbed out of bed and began getting dressed. “You heard him, guys. Let’s go.”

Once dressed and with notebook in hand, Fear followed Joy, Sadness and Anger out the bedroom door and down the stairs onto the Headquarters floor. Greeting them was Disgust busy at the console. “There you guys are,” Disgust said, hands on his hips. “Thankfully, I didn’t need your help getting Ian ready today.”

“That’s good to hear,” Fear commented, scribbling that note down in his notebook. “Disgust is present obviously, then there’s Anger, Sadness, and-“

“Me!” Joy chimed, before interrupting himself with a gasp.

Fear looked back at Joy, confused. “What?”

“You’re finally wearing the sweatshirt again,” Joy awed with a big smile.

Fear looked down at his Willowdale College sweatshirt. “Oh, well, I was just waiting for the right day to wear it.”

“What’s so special about today?” Disgust asked. “We’re just doing an oral report in history.”

“Not that,” Fear commented as he made his way to his locker. He opened it and pulled out a cardboard box. “See, I didn’t feel right if I was the only one who got to wear Dad’s sweatshirt. So, I made a few orders with some mind workers over at Dream Productions wardrobe department and… ta da!” Fear finished, pulling another replica of Dad’s sweatshirt out of the box.

Joy jumped up and down with, well, joy. “Our own sweatshirts! I’ve never been so happy! Oh, I’m gonna try mine on right now!” Joy exclaimed, snagging the sweatshirt from Fear’s hands.

Fear watched as each emotion took a sweatshirt and tried them on, each one fitting them perfectly. Anger rolled up the sleeves on his, Disgust adjusted by placing his comb and pocket mirror in his jeans pocket, and Sadness gladly snuggled up inside the hoodie of the sweatshirt.

“Glad you all like it,” Fear told everyone. “Now come on, let’s get Ian fed and off to school!”

\----

The emotions gathered around the console, proudly watching Ian standing in front of the entire class, telling his story about his first epic quest for his history class. Months ago, Fear wouldn’t dare dream of the idea to his worst enemy. And here he was, just as excited as Joy is to let Ian stand out and tell the tale.

“And I believe, with a little magic in your life, you can do almost anything,” Ian concluded.

“Is that how you fixed the school?” one classmate asked.

“Yes,” Ian replied as he picked up his wizard’s staff, which was leaned against the chalkboard beside him.

“Is that how you also destroyed the school?” another student asked.

Ian sheepishly held his staff and replied, “Uh, also, yes?”

Fear shuttered nervously. “I hate Q and As.”

“Okay, so we had a hiccup,” Joy shrugged.

Disgust grinned as a bunch of familiar classmates approached Ian. “Here come Ian’s friends.”

“Great speech, Ian,” an elf student said.

“You coming to the park later?” a troll student asked.

“You know it,” Ian replied.

“Yay! Play time at the park!” Joy cheered.

“Joy,” Disgust told Joy. “Teenagers don’t have play time. They hang out.”

“I hope we don’t get too much homework,” Sadness sighed.

\----

“Mom, I’m home,” Ian announced as he walked through the door. As the teenage elf placed his staff by the front door, he was almost caught off guard by a slender serpent bodied pet dragon leaping up and encircling his body to greet him.

“Hi Blazey, we’re home!” Joy almost sang as he took over at the controls. “Who’s a good dragon? Who’s a good dragon?”

After Ian gave Blazey a good scratch under her chin, the dragon ran off as Laurel entered the room. “So, how was school today?”

Ian folded his hands behind his back with a smile, as Joy and Disgust helped him respond, “It was pretty good.”

“Well, alright,” Laurel replied with a smile.

Just then, Colt entered the room, coffee cup in hand and a brand new wedding band on his finger. “Hey there, Ian,” he greeted. “You working hard?”

“Nope,” Ian replied. “Hardly working.” The emotions’ laughter almost drowned out Colt’s braying laugh.

Fear turned and watched Family Island light up with Ian’s response to Colt. After giving a careful double take, Fear left the emotions behind at the console and quickly made his way to the window. He overlooked the islands with a smile, starting with Family Island, now with a new Colt Bronco statue next to the Laurel statue. He panned over the Islands with a smile, observing every single one. Science Island, with its influence on space. School Island, proudly highlighting Ian’s math skills. Friendship Island, expanded to accommodate all of Ian’s new friends. Smartphone Island, a little smaller, but still a piece of Ian. Wizard Island, with a glow shimmering from atop Ian’s staff like the light of a lighthouse. Fear smiled wide as he scanned every single island.

Then stopped at Dad Island.

Thankfully, it has changed to show how much of an impact just one day with half a dad had on Ian’s life. Along with some pictures of Dad and a large replica of the Dad audio cassette, there was a large replica of striped purple socks draped on one side of the island, and a statue of Dad’s legs sitting on the edge of the other side. Dad’s legs were beside Family Island, making it look like they were connected. But, Fear’s smile faded, knowing that wasn’t true.

“Well well,” Joy commented, standing behind Fear. “If I’m not mistaken, I think Dad Island is a little closer today.”

Fear jumped from being startled, before giving a nervous smile. “Oh, hey Joy,” he exhaled a sigh, going back to looking melancholy over the island. Fear promised that Ian would finally meet his Dad, and he would be a better person because of it. But, only one part came true.

Joy watched Fear for a moment, then gave a supportive smile. “Hey. We’ll get Dad on Family Island one day.”

Fear gave half a smile. “Thanks, Joy.”

“I’m serious,” Joy replied. “We may not find another Phoenix Gem, but I’m sure there’s plenty more stories of Dad out there.”

Fear gave a full smile at Joy as the happy emotion gave the fearful emotion a big, warm side hug.

“Get off of him or you’re dead meat!” Anger shouted.

Fear and Joy turned to see onscreen Ian successfully grabbing Barley, flipping him out of his grapple and slam him onto the ground. Joy and Fear could hear Family Island chime behind them.

“Woo! Nice one, Anger!” Joy exclaimed, running up and giving the red emotion a fist bump.

“Phew! Thank goodness I wasn’t here for that,” Fear commented as he approached the console. “Barley sneaking up on us still scares the heck out of me.”

Ian took up his staff as he and Barley stepped out of the house. “So, how’s the new van?”

“Oh, Guinevere the Second is great!” Barley commented. “I’ve almost got enough saved up for a sweet paint job.”

“No, please, don’t,” Ian replied.

Barley looked surprised and confused. “Why not?”

“Stand back, boys,” Disgust told the other emotions as he took the controls. “I’ve been waiting all night for this.”

“Cause I already took care of it,” Ian replied, motioning his staff to the side of the van.

Barley turned and was immediately jumping and screaming with joy. On the side of the mandarin orange van was a mural of a Pegasus from Barley’s first van, with the same background color as old Guinevere. Upon the mighty steed was Barley in his adventure outfit, boldly his sword onward, with Ian dressed as a wizard at his side.

The emotions cheered as Joy exclaimed, “He loves it!”

Disgust brushed a blue curl from his face as he replied smugly, “Yeah, I know.”

The brothers climbed into the van and Barley backed out of the driveway. “Now, the best way to the park is to take a trail that I like to call the Road of Ruin,” Barley told Ian.

Ian gave an unimpressed shrug. “Nah, too obvious.”

Once again, Barley was thrown off his guard. “Wait, what?”

Joy turned to Fear with a big, bold grin. “You ready?”

Fear grinned back, a little less big, but still bold for a Fear. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“On a quest,” Ian quoted, as he took up his staff, “the quickest path is not always the right one.”

And with that, Joy and Fear slammed their hands down on a button between them on the console.

Ian held his staff aloft until the tip reached the ceiling. “Avi Volanta!” Ian declared, and Guinevere the second was enveloped in sparking white magic from the inside out. And, as Barley took the wheel, the van lifted off into the air and flew over the rooftops of their neighborhood. The brothers cheered in their success, and a rush of adrenaline from flying above New Mushroomton.

Inside Ian’s head, the emotions cheered on their Ian, with Fear occasionally reminding them all to focus on keeping the van in the air. They don’t want the brothers to crash!

\----

Later that afternoon, as it was becoming evening, Fear snuck off real quick one more time. He made his way to the center of the Headquarters floor and tapped his foot on a button, making the core memory holder rise from its hiding place. Fear took a quick glance over the core memories, one for each part of Ian’s personality. After taking a brief pause on the blue and yellow memory powering Dad Island, Fear knelt down and inspected the core memory powering Family Island. While still in the holder, Fear brushed his finger against it, making it move to a memory of Laurel holding infant Ian while singing him to sleep. He moved his finger against it again, and the vision changed to Ian standing at the altar with Barley at Laurel and Colt’s wedding. He brushed against it once more, and the memory changed to kid Barley helping Ian learn to walk, followed by a vision of grown Ian hugging Barley back atop the remnants of the cursed dragon.  
Each and every vision was still shining a bright and cheerful yellow, and Fear couldn’t be any more glad to see that.

“Come on, Fear!” Joy called out from the console. “Ian and Barley just made it home!”

“Oh! Coming!” Fear tapped his foot down on the button, and the core memory holder returned to its resting place, core memories and all. Fear returned to his place at the console, with his friends and coworkers, as Ian and Barley stepped into the front door of the Lightfoot home.


End file.
